The Ministry of Forestry has recorded a huge decline in illegal logging since launching an initiative to curb this issue in February 2022.

Rory Donahue who works in the Ministry’s planning department says as part of the initiative 1, 000 people pledged not to log illegally.

Donahue made the comments while presenting the Ministry’s 2019, 2020, and 2021 annual reports to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.

He says the pledge which was for one year targeted landowners, logging contractors, businesses and the public as a whole.

He states that before the pledge they recorded 29 cases of illegal logging, but since the initiative came into effect in 2022 it went down to just three.

Donahue says the cases are still under investigation by police.

“All contractors involved in illegal logging can be fined up to a maximum of $10,000 and if a company continues to repeat illegal logging then the Ministry can revoke the contractor’s licence, so to stop them logging entirely.”

Donahue says their future pledge is to revive awareness on the ‘say no to illegal logging’.

He says the Ministry is using new technologies such as drones and GIS to monitor illegal operations and is also looking at increasing manpower in hotspot areas.

The majority of illegal logging cases are being recorded in the Northern Division.