Fined: surveyors who exposed rainforest logging

Issue 

The Victorian government has fined three conservationists from the Goongerah Environment Centre who entered a logging coupe to document illegal rainforest logging. They were each fined $440 for entering a “timber harvesting safety zone”.

In April the three entered an area being harvested by VicForests to investigate concerns that rules designed to protect vulnerable plant communities were being flouted by the government logging corporation.

The government thanked them for the report they sent documenting the logging of ancient rainforest. Their report triggered an investigation that recommended changes to logging rules, but the investigation noted it was difficult to ascertain exactly where the vegetation communities the GECO raised concerns about had been because the area had since been clear felled.

Photo: Goongerah Environment Centre

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