Progress Report 2007-2008 - Department of Environment and ...

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Introduction
NSW FOREST AGREEMENTS IMPLEMENTATION REPORT 2007–2008
Monitoring ecologically
sustainable forest management
– criteria and indicators
This chapter provides a brief summary of the results of monitoring the ESFM criteria and indicators for
the UNE, LNE, Eden and Southern regions for 2007–2008. Monitoring the indicators is an ongoing and
an evolving process. With a comprehensive review of the ESFM criteria and indicators likely to start in
July 2008 (as part of the NSW Forest Agreement five-year review process), and the continuation of
other reporting streams at both corporate and national levels, there is a strong need to align all
monitoring and reporting to make best use of resources and improve the accuracy and usefulness of
the information provided.
Achieving ecologically sustainable forest management
The NSW forest agreements and IFOAs set out the strategic and operational frameworks for the
management of public forests in New South Wales. A key objective of the agreements and approvals is
the achievement of ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM). As a means to measure
progress towards this objective, a set of criteria and indicators are applied to each region: the ESFM
criteria and indicators.
Monitoring and reporting ESFM indicators began in 1999–2000 for the UNE, LNE and Eden regions
(ESFM Technical Committee 1998, 1999) and in 2002–2003 for the Southern region (ESFM Technical
Committee 2000), following the implementation of the forest agreements for each region.
Since the inception of the ESFM criteria and indicators, a number of other state, national and corporate
monitoring and reporting processes have evolved considerably. These include State of the Parks
reporting and Forests NSW SEEing reporting. In 2007–2008, where possible, there has been a
concerted effort to streamline ESFM criteria and indicator reporting with other monitoring processes.
Further changes in agency data provision have continued this year. DECC is moving to align
monitoring requirements for ESFM criteria and indicators with its own corporate State of the Parks
program where possible. This realignment will improve the longer-term monitoring of indicators and, in
some cases, data have become more specific to the requirements of the indicator.
Monitoring obligations
This chapter summarises the results of monitoring for the ESFM criteria and indicators for the UNE,
LNE, Eden and Southern regions during 2007–2008. The ESFM indicators are those described in
NSW FOREST AGREEMENTS AND INTEGRATED FORESTRY OPERATIONS APPROVALS