The Alliance sent the below letter to the NSW Government following their decision to extend the Brigalow–Nandewar and South-Western Cypress IFOAs in November 2025.

Minister Sharpe and Minister Moriarty,

We are writing on behalf of the Forest Alliance NSW to express our deep disappointment at the Government’s decision to extend both the Brigalow–Nandewar and South-Western Cypress IFOAs until 31 December 2028 without undertaking any environmental assessment of the impacts on threatened species. 

Both IFOAs were due to expire in December 2025. The agencies responsible for overseeing and implementing them have had more than a decade to undertake the required reviews and prepare for their renewal. The IFOAs themselves identify the assessments and monitoring expected under an adaptive management framework, yet many of those processes remain incomplete.

This continues a broader pattern of delayed review processes. For example, the first five-year review of the North East RFA, due in 2005, was not exhibited until 2009 and not tabled in Parliament until late 2014. Subsequent ten- and fifteen-year reviews were combined and only exhibited in 2017. Similarly, the five-year review of the Coastal IFOA, due in 2023, has not yet been released.

The Western forests covered by this IFOA contain numerous listed species and ecological communities already under extreme pressure, including the Regent Parrot, which is now one of the most threatened birds in New South Wales. These forests are also facing cumulative stress from land clearing, climate-driven drought, past harvesting and fragmentation. To extend the IFOA for another three years without assessing the impacts on these species is a serious failure of due diligence.

The Statement of Reasons notes that the amendment “retains existing terms and conditions, timber volume caps and environmental protections” and is intended to provide industry certainty while the Western IFOAs are reviewed. But the central issue remains unresolved: why was this extension granted without a proper assessment of how continued logging will affect threatened species, including the Regent Parrot, in forests already known to be ecologically vulnerable?

It is not acceptable that the Government has chosen to extend these approvals while deferring the review that would determine whether the IFOAs require strengthening. This approach amounts to a retrospective assessment of whether the rules should have been changed, to be undertaken at an unspecified time in the future, with no commitment to a clear timeline. The result is that logging can now continue for several years under settings whose adequacy will only be tested after the fact, which is difficult to justify in regions facing such well-documented and significant conservation risks.

The Government has made strong public commitments to protecting threatened species and to grounding environmental decisions in contemporary science. This decision sits uncomfortably beside those commitments. The Forest Alliance asks: 

• Which threatened species and ecological communities occur within the Brigalow - Nandewar and South-Western Cypress IFOA regions? 
• What surveys, reports or assessments were relied upon to determine that existing environmental protections are adequate and effective to protect threatened species and ecosystems?
• What reviews were undertaken to assess the effectiveness of fauna and flora surveys, and to determine that methods and effort do not require improvement to better record locations of threatened species? In particular, how did you determine that surveys have been effective at identifying Koala High Use Areas, Regent Honeyeater feed trees, Barking Owl nests, Masked Owl nests and bat tree roosts?. 
• Were all monitoring programs for threatened species completed and were the results applied to develop prescriptions for all those species, if not, which species still do not have species-specific prescriptions?
• Which existing IFOA conditions have been monitored  to assess their effectiveness at preventing further declines of threatened species? How many of the required exclusion areas have been identified for the Regent Parrot, Bush stone curlew, Painted honeyeater, White-browed Treecreeper, or Spotted-tailed Quoll? .
• Was the required study of the sustainable yield for logs and other timber products undertaken to DECCW’s satisfaction for Brigalow–Nandewar, did the Ministers consider it in making this decision to extend the approvals unaltered, and is it publicly available?
• On what basis has logging been allowed to continue for three more years before completing an assessment of these impacts?
• How is extending these IFOAs without prior assessment consistent with the Government’s stated commitments to threatened species protection, science-based decision-making, and the forthcoming EPBC reforms.

The Forest Alliance NSW urges the Government to release the threatened species information for this region, explain the rationale for proceeding without assessment, and ensure that any future extension or operation of the Western IFOAs is based on transparent, current ecological evidence.

Communities across the Western region, conservation groups throughout the state, and the many volunteers who care deeply about these forests are watching this closely. We expect that protecting threatened species, including the Regent Parrot, remains a core priority for this Government.

We would welcome an opportunity to discuss this matter further.

On behalf of the Forest Alliance NSW, which includes:

• The Nature Conservation Council of NSW 
• WWF-Australia 
• Wilderness Australia
• North East Forest Alliance
• Brooman State Forest Conservation Group
• The Wilderness Society
• National Parks Association of NSW
• South East Forest Rescue
• Bob Brown Foundation