Review of NSW Forest Agreements and IFOAs - Department of ...

1. Background to the review
1.1 Introduction
The Forestry and National Park Estate Act 1998 (FNPE Act) provides for forest agreements,
which set out the principles and strategic framework for the cooperative management of
forests by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) and
Industry and Investment NSW (I&I NSW) - Forests NSW.
Forest agreements contain provisions for promoting ecologically sustainable forest
management, sustainable timber supply, community consultation and Aboriginal involvement
in forest management (including Native Title rights). The four NSW Forest Agreements
covering the eastern areas of NSW are the Upper North East (UNE), Lower North East (LNE),
Southern and Eden regions. The agreements are for 20 years.
The FNPE Act also provides for IFOAs, which integrate the regulatory regimes for
environmental planning and assessment, for the protection of the environment and for
threatened species conservation.
An IFOA describes the forestry operations covered by the approval, including a description of
the area of the state to which it applies. The approval sets out the conditions subject to which
forestry operations covered by the approval are to be carried out. The IFOA applies to anyone
carrying out forestry operations on state forests and other Crown-timber lands. There are
currently four IFOAs, covering the same regions as the four NSW Forest Agreements. IFOAs
also last for 20 years.
Table 1.1 shows the dates of signing and expiry of the NSW Forest Agreements and IFOAs.
Table 1.1: NSW Forest Agreements and IFOAs in place
Forest Agreements/IFOA Signed Date of expiry
Eden region forest agreement 4 March 1999 4 March 2019
LNE region forest agreement 5 March 1999 4 March 2019
UNE region forest agreement 5 March 1999 4 March 2019
Southern region forest
agreement
3 May 2002 3 May 2022
IFOA for the Eden region 21 December 1999 21 December 2019
IFOA for the LNE region 21 December 1999 21 December 2019
IFOA for the UNE region 21 December 1999 21 December 2019
IFOA for the Southern region 3 May 2002 3 May 2022
Total areas protected under the CAR reserve system, including new and pre-existing
dedicated reserves, informal reserves and values protected by prescription, include 267,800
hectares of forest in Eden, 2,140,700 hectares of forest in the North East (which includes
UNE and LNE), and 1,421,000 hectares of forest in the Southern FA areas. Across these
areas more than 30% of forests are in reserves. This exceeds the IUCN reserve target of
10%, widely adopted throughout the world as the minimum threshold for conservation
purposes. Almost all wilderness on public land as defined in the JANIS reserve criteria in
NSW is included in the dedicated reserve system.
NSW has also made numerous additions to the reserve system since the forest agreements
(listed in Table 1.1) were signed. A number of Acts of Parliament have added forested areas
to the reserve system in the regions covered by these agreements. Table 1.2 outlines the
areas added by each Act.
Review of NSW Forest Agreements and Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals 1