David Lindenmayer

As scandal-plagued VicForests – Australia’s biggest native logging company – was preparing to shut its doors, the organisation’s CEO, Monique Dawson, was already working with other powerful logging bosses to set up a brand new organisation – The Healthy Forests Foundation, which would hire loggers and logging lobbyists from VicForests and elsewhere. The Healthy Forests Foundation’s core purpose, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents, is “the protection and enhancement of the natural environment”. David Lindenmayer from Australian National University has another view. “The aim is just to work out ways to keep cutting the forest. It’s a front — it’s just a way of keeping the [logging] industry going,” Professor Lindenmayer said. The Healthy Forests Foundation says part of its purpose is to promote First Nations forest management, which proponents admit will also supply timber. …Some First Nations leaders are excited about the opportunities, and say removing trees is part of “healing country”.