The NSW Department of Primary Industries hosted a public forum in Batemans Bay this week to discuss the renewal of 20-year plans to manage the Eurobodalla Shire’s native forests.
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Members of the public were invited to a drop-in session on Wednesday, February 14, to provide feedback before the agreement’s expiry in April 2021, with additional invitation-only meetings for industry and environmental stakeholders.
DPI Forestry spokesperson Nick Milham said the meetings aimed to clear up confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the renewal process.
“There has been a significant level of misunderstanding that because the government has decided there will be RFAs, that that simply means it will be business as usual, and that’s not the case,” Mr Milham said.
“The (state and federal) governments have committed to renewing the RFAs; they’ve also committed to the geographic regions they cover being the same, the overarching principles to do with ecologically-sustainable forest management and providing long-term security to forest-based industries.
“It’s been decided that those things will remain, but everything else is on the table for discussion.
There has been a significant level of misunderstanding that because the government has decided there will be RFAs, that that simply means it will be business as usual, and that’s not the case.
- Nick Milham
Mr Milham said he was aware of concerns and hoped the sessions would help strike a balance between industry and environment.
“The two governments are genuinely here to get the views from everyone who has an interest in our native forests,” he said.
“We are balancing quite disparate views in the way our native forests should be used ... we want to account for all those and strike a balance that will deliver maximum benefit for the community as a whole.”
Mr Milham said under existing plans, a 50/50 agreement had been reached for the harvesting and permanent protection of the state forest.
“There’s about 7.5 million hectares of native forest on public land and only about one million hectares of that where we allow harvesting to take place,” he said.
“As a rule of thumb, it works out there’s about 50 per cent of areas in state forest estate that can never be accessed for harvesting and is permanently protected.
“That was the agreement that was struck 20 years ago, the question is, is that balance still appropriate?”
Mr Milham said concerns from environmental stakeholders about how the agreement had been enacted and regulated over the past 20 years, would be taken into account.
“There’s a significant level of concern in relation to the principles that are in the RFAs in relation to sustainable management of our forests and how well they’re actually implemented on the ground,” he said.
Demands from the timber industry were a main area of consideration at the consultations.
“We’ve heard from industry that the long-term security that the RFAs provide for them is absolutely critical because it provides them with that longer-term security to enable them to invest in what are significantly capital-intensive industries,” Mr Milham said.
“There’s a lot of money tied up in them and so they need to have a long-term horizon.”
Public submissions on the process close on March 12, 2018.
Mr Milham said an independent review of the RFA would provide insight into the renewal and agreements were expected by late 2018.
A drop-in session was held in Eden on Tuesday and others were held in Lismore, Coff Harbour, Bulahdelah and Tumut.
Commonwealth representatives from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and the Department of Environment and Energy and state representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency attended. Elton Consulting facilitated the sessions.
