Conservation groups say NSW Labor's election promise to establish the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) is being undermined by plans to continue timber harvesting.
They are calling for an immediate moratorium on logging in the proposed park.
It would include state forests and other bushland around Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo and Nambucca Heads, where a fifth of the state's surviving koala population is estimated to live.
Nature Conservation Council chief executive Jacqui Mumford said continued harvesting within the area would lead to a further decline of the koala population while the Minns government reviewed plans to establish the park.
"It's critical [the state government] put a suspension of logging in place until they're able to have the assessment process done in full of what will and won't be taken into the footprint of the GKNP," Ms Mumford said.
The council conducted an analysis of Forestry Corporation of NSW operations plans that it said showed 30,000 hectares of state forests would be logged within the boundaries of the future park over the next financial year.
Ms Mumford said that represented about 18 per cent of the proposed park, and more than a tripling of logging operations on the north coast.
In a statement, a forestry corporation spokesperson said the conservation council's figures were inaccurate and there hadn't been an increase in logging across the north coast.
"[The conservation council] likely have aggregated the area we operate in, not the area harvested as we harvest selectively in native forests and only take a proportion of trees in any operation," a forestry corporation spokesperson said.
"The area to be harvested would be closer to 10,000 ha on the north coast annually not 30,000 and this would also include several thousand hectares of hardwood plantations — often former farms planted with trees for timber production."
The conservation council and other conservation groups have issued fresh calls for NSW to implement a moratorium on harvesting within the proposed GKNP.
It comes after the Victorian government's announcement this week to phase out native forest logging by the end of this year.
North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Suzie Russell said the alliance was among those calling for a moratorium.
"We absolutely need to see these promises for the GKNP brought forward," Ms Russell said.
In a statement, Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said no moratoriums were committed to before the election, and she "stands by that promise".
"As the process is being established, the Environment Protection Authority is engaging with [forestry corporation] to encourage them to take a precautionary approach … in areas with highly suitable koala habitat … if forestry operations are necessary in these areas."
Timber industry hits back
Timber NSW chair Andrew Hurford said any moratorium on logging would be devastating for the industry.
"Supply of our Australian hardwood iconic species here on the north coast would be radically affected if we lose more than half the supply the industry relies upon," he said.
Mr Hurford said Victoria's move to phase out native forestry was "tragic" and was "basically offshoring our own domestic timber supply".
In question time last week, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey was asked by Greens MP Sue Higginson whether the government would "join other state Labor governments in turning profitless logging in native forests into an economic windfall for NSW".
The latest forestry corporation annual report shows the hardwood division posted a loss of $9 million in the 2022 financial year, and $20 million the year prior.
Softwood plantations generated more than three times the revenue as the hardwood division in the 2022 financial year.
Ms Higginson cited analysis by Frontier Economics last year showing a 10-year transition plan would cost the state $244 million, and a Blueprint Institute report, which found ending native forestry in north-east NSW could generate at least $294 million.
Mr Mookhey, who is also a shareholding minister of Forestry Corporation NSW, said he met with the timber industry union to discuss a transition plan.
He said the government was "committed to certainty" for the timber industry.
