A private forestry consultant says a state government measure to streamline red tape around the harvest of trees has had the opposite effect, and is proving costly and time-consuming for landholders. Source: ABC Rural
The Newman Government introduced the Protected Plants Flora Survey Trigger Map as part of changes to the Nature Conservation Act in 2014.
It shows high-risk areas for protected plants and was designed to simplify the process for determining if a flora survey was necessary to clear land. But Private Forestry Service Queensland executive officer Sean Ryan said the system was onerous, and could cost landholders thousands of dollars looking for plants that might not even be there.
“It comes up as a blue dot, which is a very broad-scale blue dot, it doesn’t necessarily transfer down to property level,” he said.
“It’s just based on a regional ecosystem and it just indicates the possible presence of a possible endangered plant, not a specific one.
“You have to undertake an independent floristic survey by a registered botanist at your expense and, even if you find that there isn’t a plant there, you still have to obtain a clearing permit from the department.
“It’s up to the landholder to actually demonstrate that there is or isn’t an endangered plant and what that endangered plant may be on their property, and they have to pay for it.
“It’s a very onerous imposition on a landholder.”
Under the changes, landholders must use the trigger map to identify if endangered plants might grow on their property.
Mr Ryan said a positive result required a flora survey, which could cost up to $15,000 depending on the complexity of the block, to look for an undefined plant that may not even be there, and also added to permit costs and delayed the harvest. He said the industry was largely unaware of the rule until recently, but now they wanted it changed.
“If the floristic survey finds there isn’t any endangered plants present on the area that you’re going to harvest you still have to apply for a permit that costs $2677 and wait for the permit approval from the department,” he said.
“If you do find an endangered plant then you have to put a 100-metre buffer zone around the location of that plant or plants.”
Mr Ryan’s not-for-profit group helps farmers selectively harvest their native forest for timber, which he said was very different to commercial forestry. He said the practice should be granted an exclusion to the rule.
“While there’s a number of exemptions under agricultural sections, for example burning or you can maintain fence lines or you can maintain areas around infrastructure that’s there or even, I think, maintain areas that have been previously cleared in the past, in the areas where it’s been mapped as remnant country then in that area you have to abide by this trigger map legislation,” he said.
“There needs to be an exemption under native forest practice.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection said there were two rounds of public consultation on the planned changes prior to their introduction, and groups such as Timber Queensland were invited to make submissions.
In a statement, she said the changes had significantly simplified the regulation for the clearing of endangered plants on private land by focusing on protected plants as the greatest risk.
“The new framework and the trigger map make the process clearer and simpler to use by defining when, where, and how a fauna survey must be carried out,” she said.
“The result has been a considerable reduction in the area covered by the trigger map — now only 3.2% of the state.
“This means that legitimate clearing can take place unencumbered by the need for flora surveys while the areas where at-risk native plants are known to occur are being protected.”
She said the department continued to work with industry and community groups on the legislation.
