Since colonisation, Australia has been frantically logging our native forests as if our lives depended on it. Our lives do indeed depend on the forests - but on keeping them, not destroying them.
World-leading forest expert Professor David Lindenmayer uncovers the grim truth about what is happening in our tall eucalypt forests. Koalas, greater gliders, Leadbeater's possums and hundreds of other iconic animal and bird species are being killed in droves each year, driving many closer to extinction. Logging makes bushfires worse for decades after the chainsaws stop. Carbon emissions from the forestry industry are a major contributor to climate change. Native forest logging doesn't even provide much wood to build houses: it mostly goes to woodchips and pulp for paper and box liners. It's not even profitable: taxpayers are funding it everywhere.
Lindenmayer reveals an unholy alliance between state forestry, the timber industry and unions. Loggers routinely breach regulations, and industry intimidates anyone who questions what they are doing. Worse still, even where native forest logging is supposedly ending, efforts are being made to continue under a different guise.
The fact is that native forests are considerably more economically valuable left standing. If Australia stopped native forest logging, we could reach our 2030 carbon emission target of 43 per cent on this measure alone.