Last year we exposed the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA) dodgy ‘Green star’ ratings. The GBCA award green star ratings for buildings made with timber sourced from unsustainable logging operations in Victoria’s native forests.

Wood certified under the so called 'Responsible Wood' certification scheme (formally Australian Forestry Standard) is being used in so called ‘Green’ buildings that te council has awarded their green tick to. This includes wood from old growth forests, endangered species habitat and critically endangered Mountain Ash forests within the proposed Great Forest National Park

Old growth forest logged in East Gippsland, 2015

As conservationists from the Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) entered their tenth consecutive day of successfully preventing logging of old growth forest at Granite Mountain in remote East Gippsland, twenty government officials have today arrived on site to break the blockade.

Around fifteen people are at the blockade, established on Monday 22 January. One person is suspended from a tripod structure blocking the logging road.

The Rubicon Forest Protection Group has detected logging in a very important area in the Rubicon Valley right next to the Rubicon Valley Historic reserve and on the Royston River.

The natural heritage, ecological values and tourism value of this beautiful place are being decimated.

VicForests is pursuing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for the third time in decade. The internationally recognised certification label regards itself as having strict environmental standards, which specify that logging cannot threaten endangered species, old growth forest and rainforest.

Previous audits of VicForests found a number non conformances to the FSC standards. Today our affiliates GECO joined the auditors in the forest to demonstrate VicForests non conformance to the standard and the impacts of logging on threatened wildlife and old growth forest in East Gippsland.

What a year it has been! 2018 is shaping up as a HUGE year with the Victorian State Election due. Can you help us get get ready for the election and help us show that #VicLovesForests with a donation today?

Northcote Loves Forests! 
Northcote residents overwhelming voted for forest protection by electing Greens candidate Lidia Thorpe. Lidia is the first Aboriginal woman in Victorian parliament and long time advocate for native forest protection.

We congratulate Lidia and look forward to working with her, and we call on Premier Andrews and cabinet Ministers to make declaration of the Great Forest National Park a priority in the coming months. 

Polling commissioned by FoE and other groups revealing that more than 81% of Northcote voters support the creation of the GFNP and for more than 1 in 5 voters the protection of forests is their most important issue, as reported in The Guardian.

You can take action and email the Premier and Cabinet calling for the creation of the Great Forest National Park, the protection of East Gippsland's Emerald Link and fair and just transition for workers. Take action now.

The Northcote by-election is a great opportunity for all candidates to show their support for protecting native forests and wildlife. 

Do you live in Northcote and will be voting in the by-election?

Contact your candidates to tell them you want Victoria's native forests protected from logging.

More than 30 environment, recreation and scientific groups have renewed their call for the creation of the Great Forest National Park, as Labor’s favoured issues of renters rights and cost of housing prove less popular with voters in the upcoming Northcote by-election.

Read coverage in The Guardian here.

As Northcote voters head to the polls this weekend, here’s a wrap up of the Friends of the Earth campaign in the Northcote by-election and where the candidates stand on the issue of native forest logging and the creation of the Great Forest National Park.

The Kuark forest is located in far East Gippsland, Victoria. This magnificent forest is home to rare rainforest and endangered animals. Sections of it are currently on logging schedules and could be cut at any moment. An access track has been cut into the first coupe.

In response, campaigners have set up a camp in the forest to oppose logging. In response, the Victorian government announced it would increase the protection given to old growth forests, but activists are not prepared for any of the coupe to be logged.

Ancient forest in East Gippsland's iconic Kuark forest is about to be logged!

Our friends and affiliate members Goongerah Envrionment Centre (GECO) have been working around the clock to protect this forest.

Trees over 400 years old will be cut down this week if we do not act.

A road has been pushed into the forest in preparation to start logging one of the most significant old growth forests in Victoria.

Logging has not yet started so there's still time to stop it.

If you haven't already, please take action here - Email Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio calling on her to stop the logging of this beautiful forest.

We're working closely with our friends at GECO to stop this logging using a variety of different strategies, your efforts to amplify the message in the Minister's office will greatly help.

We will keep you in the loop as new information comes to hand. Please follow our affiliate GECO's Facebook and Twitter for live updates.