AUSTRALIA — The bans that have closed native forestry in Victoria and Western Australia, along with the campaign to extend them across NSW and Tasmania, rest on misinformation and a flawed promotion of science that cannot be squared with the published evidence. That is according to lead author John Raison, a former Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) with nearly five decades studying native forest ecology, writing in the journal Australian Forestry alongside fellow former CSIRO scientists Sadanandan Nambiar and Glen Kile and University of Melbourne hydrologist Leon Bren. As it stands, just 0.05% of Australia’s 132 million hectares of native forest is harvested in any year, the authors point out, a figure equal to about 1.5% of the net harvestable area and one that sits awkwardly beside anti-forestry campaigners’ claims of wholesale destruction. The harvested coupes are scattered and non-contiguous, and the law requires each to be regenerated and monitored.