The NSW native forest logging industry is proposing to log 100,000 hectares of public native forests that are currently being assessed for inclusion in a new national park on NSW's mid-north coast, spatial analysis by the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation has revealed.

The new analysis reveals the true extent of the industry's plans for the Great Koala National Park (GKNP), threatening more than half of the current state forest area that is being assessed for the new national park.

A total of 176,000 hectares of publicly owned state forests are currently being assessed through a formal government process for potential inclusion in the new national park, including to protect critical populations of endangered koalas.

In November 2024, logging interests presented "Preferred" and "Acceptable" proposals to protect 37,000 or 58,000 hectares of public native forests to the NSW Government. Now, these proposals have been analysed for the first time by converting industry-mapped images to spatial data files.

"This new analysis reveals the true intent of native forest sawmiller proposals for the Great Koala National Park. The native forest logging industry wants to log 100,000 hectares of the Koala Park on a permanent basis, in exchange for protecting just 20,000 hectares of forest currently available for logging. An industry proposal to protect less than a fifth of the harvestable area of the GKNP while logging the other 83% is clearly not a genuine effort to deliver protection for endangered species or establish a truly sustainable timber industry," ACBF chair Dr Ken Henry said.

"Already, NSW taxpayers have been footing the bill for the industry's destruction of koala habitats to the tune of $50 million over the last three years, as our native forests are being logged for low-value woodchips sold cheaply overseas.

"The forest areas being assessed for the Great Koala National Park are worth far more to regional communities if they are preserved to store carbon, which will fund more jobs to manage our forests, provide a safe habitat for koalas, and make the bush more resilient to hazards like fires."

ACBF's analysis assesses only those parts of the GKNP that are currently available for logging. Around 35% of the area being assessed for the national park falls under long-standing forest management zoning, which excludes certain areas such as rainforests, old-growth forests, creek lines from logging, along with smaller areas of Koala Hubs that were removed from logging in 2023.

"Spatial analysis clearly shows that, in addition to proposing a dramatically smaller protected area, industry proposals significantly overstate the scale of actual forest protection by including substantial areas of forest that are already excluded from logging under existing regulations," Henry said.