Module 5 - VicForests

Silvicultural System (SS)
Clear felling and thinning from above and below are the most common silvicultural
systems employed in Victoria. Clear felling (including seed tree silvicultural systems)
due to its nature is more likely to affect the environment and biodiversity. Coupes
that have been clear felled are assigned a silvicultural system (SS) value of 2. Coupes
where non-clear felling silvicultural systems have been employed are assigned an SS
value of 1.
Special Land Protection Requirements (PR)
State forests are zoned according to sensitivity. The majority of forest harvesting
takes place in the General Management Zone (GMZ), the zone with the lowest
sensitivity. Coupes in the GMZ are assigned a protection risk (PR) value of 1.
Special Protection Zones (SPZ) and Special Management Zones (SMZ) are more
sensitive, although some harvesting is allowed in SMZ zones. To recognise this
sensitivity coupes that are affected by SPZ or SMZ are assigned a PR value of 2.
Water supply catchments are also more sensitive and coupes that fall within specified
catchment zones should also be assigned a PR value of 2.
If there is no reliable information regarding SPZ, SMZ or water catchments for a
particular coupe is available, a default PR of 2 should be assigned.
Compliance Themes (CT)
In addition, the audit target selection may also incorporate compliance themes into
the selection methodology. Compliance themes selected for audit focus will be
determined by DSE annually. For each year of audit, one or more compliance themes
may be adopted, typically from the following:
• Forest type;
• Coupe type (ie. roadline, commercial firewood);
• Special prescriptions (eg: salvage harvesting);
• Harvest season;
• Flora values (ie. rainforest, habitat trees);
• Fauna values (ie. threatened species, eg. leadbeater possum);
• District.
The compliance themes selected for inclusion in the applicable audit period are
allocated a CT value of 1 with all other compliance themes assigned a default CT
value of 0. More than one compliance theme can be selected during an audit period
with the total number of compliance themes agreed upon by DSE and the Auditor.
FOREST AUDIT PROGRAM – MODULE 2 AUDIT PROCESS
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