On Wednesday this week, the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) launched a new report entitled Regional Forest Agreements in NSW. Have they achieved their aims? In short, the answer is no, far from it, writes Dr Ois√≠n Sweeney. REGIONAL FOREST Agreements (RFAs) are deals between the Commonwealth and State governments that allow for logging in public native forests. There …
Nineteen years ago this week, the forest wars were meant to end. Nineteen years ago, the first of 10 Regional Forest Agreements was signed, aimed at weighing up the needs of forest-based industries and conservation within areas of native forest. As the then-Environment Minister Robert Hill said, we were meant to see “more effective management …
Wednesday 3rd February marks the 19th anniversary of an agreement that has allowed the logging industry a legal exemption from Australia’s environment laws. Jill Redwood from Environment East Gippsland, where this exemption from commonwealth laws was first introduced says the Turnbull government is planning to instate another 20 years of this special treatment. “We have …
Our state and federal governments signed away our native forests exactly 19 years ago today (3rd Feb 1997). They were deemed exempt from commonwealth environmental laws. Ever since our forests have fed a massive overseas woodchip market. This immunity from the law will end next year and the Turnbull Government wants to roll over this …
A year to the day that the first Regional Forest Agreement is due to expire, the Greens are calling for a comprehensive reassessment of how we manage native forests in Australia. “Regional Forest Agreements were meant to bring the forestry industry into the new century, but right now the native forest logging industry is operating …
The rules governing our native forests, RFAs, were drawn up nearly 20 years ago. They need to be thoroughly reviewed and updated to reflect the changes in the forestry industry that have occurred in the last two decades. BIT BY BIT, Tony Abbott is dismantling everything scientists are telling us we need to do to …
Since the East Gippsland RFA was signed in February 1997, we have seen: licences issued for unlimited woodchip exports from the region a five year permanent blockade of the Goolengook heritage listed old growth forest. Hundreds of people were arrested. Politically and financially this was costly to the government and what remained was eventually protected. …
For almost two decades, the management of forests in parts of Western Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales has been underpinned by state and federal Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs), defined as “20-year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia’s native forests”. The broad aim of RFAs is to “provide certainty for forest-based …
This audit examined whether Victoria’s native forest timber resources on public land are being managed productively and sustainably. The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI), VicForests and the Department of Treasury and Finance are managing the timber resources in a productive way that delivers socio-economic benefits to regional communities. VicForests has demonstrated that its …
Green groups looking at legal challenge to Regional Forest Agreements they blame for pushing species towards extinction A coalition of environment groups has urged the federal government to tear up its “failed” forestry deal with states, which they blame for unsustainable logging and pushing species such as the Leadbeater’s possum and numbat to the brink …
