Furphy: We can’t end native forest logging because too many people in regional areas would lose their jobs.

Fact: Ending native forest logging can increase employment and develop a more sustainable hardwood sector.

Native forest logging in NSW public forests directly employed an estimated 1,070 people before the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires and the number has been declining for years because of wood supply constraints and competition from plantations (Frontier Economics 2024).

The NSW Government could fund a structural adjustment package both to offset the reduction in hardwood timber supply resulting from ending public native forest logging and to create alternative jobs in the affected regions.

According to Frontier Economics, this pack-age could be targeted in three areas (Frontier Economics 2024, WWF-Australia 2025).

First, the government could fund the expansion of public hardwood plantations into areas of degraded land and provide incentives for regenerative forestry and agroforestry on private land. Regenerative forestry plants forests on marginal farmland, and agroforestry grows trees alongside crops and pasture.

Second, the government could support the development of innovative hardwood manufacturing and processing technologies, such as making structural timber products from composites. These technologies have the potential to reduce low value wood chipping and to increase timber supplies from domestic sources (rather than importing them).

Third, ending public native forest logging would result in 2 million more hectares of protected forests, which would need to be managed and restored.

Some 1,200 jobs could be created through these interventions: 80 in plantations, over 550 in hardwood manufacturing, and over 550 to manage and restore new protected forests (Frontier Economics 2024). These figures don’t include other employment increases that would result from protecting more forests, such as in tourism.

Both the Western Australian and Victorian governments decided to end native forest logging in their respective states – Western Australia in 2021 and Victoria in 2023 – and have developed programs to support the forestry transition (Vic DEECA 2024, WA Government 2023). The Western Australian Government’s plan includes investing $350 million to expand softwood plantations.

Further reading

Frontier Economics (2024). Forestry transition and regional employment. A report for the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, 6 December. Available at: https://wwf.org.au.

WWF-Australia (2025). Report says NSW can end native forest logging and maintain regional jobs, News, 17 February. Available at: https://wwf.org.au.