Continual logging in Victoria’s sensitive native forests is causing many of our native species to lose their homes.

In East Gippsland, community members took matters into their own hands, heading out into the forest to conduct their own wildlife survey in an area slated for logging. This ‘citizen science’ proved that a population of Greater Gliders were living in an isolated area of the forest.

Sometimes called ‘the koala of the possum world’ because they spend their days eating eucalyptus leaves and lazing around in the treetops, the Greater Glider was recently nominated for listing federally as a threatened species.

The law requires that these giant ‘gliding possums’ be protected from logging in East Gippsland where they are found in high densities, or in isolated or unusual habitat.

But state logging agency VicForests refused to protect the group of Greater Gliders found by the community in this area. They moved their bulldozers and chainsaws into the area and commenced logging. 

That’s when Environmental Justice Australia’s Forest Lawyer Danya Jacobs stepped in.

“We wrote to VicForests on behalf of local forest protection group Environment East Gippsland Inc,  demanding they cease logging and protect this population. In this case we were able to obtain a small protected area for the species here, but logging continues nearby and there’s a lot more work to do to guarantee the future of this beautiful creature. It’s great that we’ve been able to support the community to achieve this for the gliders.”