The fate of the Victorian forestry industry and the state’s native greater and yellow-bellied gliders is being fought about and the argument has landed with the Victorian Supreme Court.

On Friday, November 4, a court ruling was made that could only be considered a blow for VicForests.

Established in 2004, VicForests is a state-owned business managing the harvest, sale and regrowing of sustainable timber from Victorian State Forests on behalf of the Victorian government.

Environmentalists argue VicForests doesn’t know, nor care, where the gliders live and does little to determine their presence and as a result is endangering them by destroying their habitat.

VicForests is currently locked out of most of Victoria’s logging coupes because it has either been ordered not to log by the courts, or because ongoing litigation has halted it.

A Supreme Court 167-page ruling from Justice Melinda Richards on November 4 said VicForests was failing in its attempt to protect the greater and yellow-bellied gliders according to a code of conduct related to timber harvesting.

Justice Richards ruled VicForests was failing in its surveys carried out before assessing a coupe scheduled for harvest and whether it contained greater gliders or yellow-bellied gliders.

The ruling said VicForests relied on ‘spotlight surveys’ carried out by its own staff or contractors.

It noted VicForests also used Department of Environment Land Water and Planning surveys.

None made full surveys of any coupe.

VicForests used transects about a kilometre long within a coupe ‘along an existing road or track’.

Justice Richards said that survey method left most of the coupe unsurveyed.

And without knowing where the gliders were, it was impossible to take measures to address risk to them.

The state government must adhere to ‘regional forestry agreements’ (RFA) signed with the federal government.

This ensures the federal government meets all of the international agreements it has signed by requiring state governments and their agencies to meet RFAs.

The RFAs conform to the federal government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, a central pillar of national environmental law.

This Act has been written with much assistance from scientists and adherence to the EPBC Act means Australia’s international commitments are being met.

The RFAs contain certain principles when it comes to management of flora and fauna, particularly at-risk or threatened species.

One of those is the ‘precautionary principle’.

The precautionary principle requires two questions to be answered: are there threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage? and;

Is there a lack of scientific certainty?

A ‘ýes’ to either of those questions means the precautionary principle must be applied.

In the case of the gliders, which are deemed to be ‘threatened’, Justice Richards, after analysing extensive evidence from both sides, ruled the precautionary principle was not being applied.

VicForests told the ABC it was disappointed and was “reviewing the decision and considering our options”.

FACTS

The southern greater glider, Petauroides volans, is Australia’s largest gliding mammal.

It is one of three of Australia’s species of greater glider, the only one that occurs in Victoria, and thought to be the most at risk.

Greater gliders are solitary creatures, whose ranges at times may overlap.

Males maintain a range of one to four hectares, females a range between one and three hectares.

In their home range they may occupy as many as 20 den trees, using hollow-bearing trees for shelter or nesting.

Half of Victoria’s forest set aside for conservation of the southern greater glider burned during the 2019-20 bushfires.

The yellow-bellied glider is Australia’s second-largest glider and can be found in Australia’s eastern forests from Queensland to Victoria.

It lives in family groups of three to six.