FPN vol 11 no 2 January 2012 - The Forest Practices Authority

FPA submission on the Tasmanian ForestsInter-Governmental AgreementGraham Wilkinson, Chief Forest Practices Officer, Forest Practices AuthorityThe FPA has made a submission to theIndependent Verification Panel appointedunder the Tasmanian Forests Inter-Governmental Agreement (TFIGA). Themain points of our submission are as follows:1. Any outcomes under the TFIGA needto recognise the capacity to protecthigh conservation values throughboth reservation and by managementprescription within non-reservedforests.This approach is consistent with theprinciples of the National Forest PolicyStatement, which provides for theestablishment of a comprehensive,adequate and representative (CAR)reserve system that is complementedby the conservation of values onother lands through managementprescriptions and informal reservesunder codes of practice. Tasmania’sforest practices system has beenacknowledged as providing a veryeffective framework for systematicallyidentifying and managing natural andcultural values within public and privateforests whilst maintaining the broadereconomic and social use of the forests.2. Appropriate discounts for thesustainable management of naturaland cultural values need to be appliedto yield forecasts from state forests.There is already a tension betweenwood production targets for stateforest and the requirements ofthe Forest Practices Code. Furtherreservation of state forest withoutan appropriate reduction in woodcommitments will seriously exacerbatethis tension. The yield schedulingthat has been done to date indicatesthat it is simply not possible toachieve the wood targets in theTFIGA and the reservation targetssought by the environmental nongovernmentalorganisations (ENGOs)under the requirements of thecurrent Forest Practices Code. Thismeans that increased reservationwould necessitate either a substantialreduction in wood targets or asubstantial lowering of environmentalstandards within the wood productionforests. The FPA is very concernedthat a lowering of environmentalstandards is contrary to the principlesof sustainable forest management andit would have serious implications forthe conservation of important values,including threatened species habitat,karst, water catchments and visualvalues.3. Meeting the TFIGA targets forwood production from a reducedarea of state forest will result in theintensification of forest management.The FPA believes that furtherintensification of wood productionregimes in native forests is notconsistent with a preferred objectiveof managing natural ecosystems underless intensive regimes that have lowerimpact on the multiple non-woodvalues of the forests. The TFIGA targetsfor wood production and the ENGOtargets for reservation could only beachieved through a significant loweringof environmental standards and asignificant intensification of harvestingwithin the remaining wood productionforests. This will increase the impactsof harvesting on non-wood values.It will perpetuate, if not exacerbate,public concerns over intensive woodproduction within native forests. Publicconcern will not be allayed simplythrough a reduction in the area offorest that is subjected to intensivewood production practices, particularlyif that reduced area is subjected tofurther intensification. The alternativemodel of reduced wood productionderived from a broad area of forestunder enhanced regulation couldhave a more favourable biodiversityoutcome for the state, and we suggestit should be part of the TFIGA’s panel’sconsiderations.4. The TFIGA wood productionreservation outcomes will have aprofound effect on the managementand conservation of private forests.Tasmania’s private forests contain manyof the state’s highest conservationpriorities and private forest ownersmake an outstanding contributionto nature conservation under thecurrent system of voluntary reservesand through management actionsunder the forest practices system.The system provides a very effectiveway of balancing economic andenvironmental outcomes in privateforests. This success will only continueif landowners have opportunities toderive an income from the sustainablemanagement of their forest assetsand if the environmental standardsunder the Forest Practices Code arenot downgraded as a consequence ofgovernmental agreements that seekto maximise wood production from adiminishing forest estate.The FPA’s submission to the IndependentVerification Panel is available through thenews panel on the FPA’s page at www.fpa.tas.gov.au.Author’s contact:Graham.Wilkinson@fpa.tas.gov.auConservation values can be protected in production forestthrough management prescriptions, such as this reserve.6 Forest Practices News vol 11 no 2 January 2012