The Tasmanian state government has unveiled its plans for undoing the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement – a deal reached in 2011 by industry groups and conservationists. Sources: Skynews, ABC News, Timberbiz, 7News
About 400,000 hectares of forest set aside in the agreement, as potential reserves will be reclassified as ‘Future Potential Production Forest’.
However, there will be no logging in these zones for at least six years as the timber industry is rebuilt.
Resources Minister Paul Harriss said the new Liberal government was acting on the overwhelming mandate it had received at last month’s election.
The government’s planned changes also include that no further reservations of forest be made without a two-thirds majority support of both houses of the state parliament.
Mr Harriss said he would start working with industry to create a new forest strategy based on science.
“This is an elegant solution to growing this important industry while importantly protecting our markets and continuing the achievement of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification.”
Mr Harriss said none of the almost $400 million in government funding attached to the forest peace deal would have to be repaid.
“We have no control over what’s been spent. What we do have control over is what we’re doing into the future,” he said.
The Tasmanian Forest Agreement had protected half a million hectares of forest from logging in return for millions of dollars in assistance to the struggling timber industry.
More than 120,000 hectares was added to the World Heritage List last year, but the Federal Government is trying to reverse protection for 74,000 hectares.
The Tasmanian Government now wants to open up the remaining trees, some 400,000 hectares, to logging.
The Forest Industries Association fears the State Government is rushing its forest policy.
Chief executive Terry Edwards has not commented on the ramifications of the proposed changes, saying he needed to see more detail. The association is one of the main industry signatories to the forest peace deal.
Cabinet signed off on a plan to impose a six-year freeze while state-owned Forestry Tasmania attempts to secure FSC certification. But it is a move that is expected to reignite Tasmania’s forest wars.
The chief auditor from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Robert Hrubes said that could affect the status of any certified forests.
Mr Hrubes said the organisation’s bid for certification could be jeopardised if it logs an area of forest that was tied with the deal.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne said no one would buy the wood harvested from areas that have been deemed to have high conservation value.
“This is ideological; take forests out of protection, destroy the biodiversity, end any sense of peace in the forests, simply to deliver on a claim that they can cut it down and ship it away,” she said.
“They can’t, they’ve got no market.”
The Tasmanian Greens leader accused the State Government of making up policy on the run.
Kim Booth said it would cripple the forest industry by undermining its reputation in overseas markets.
“They never had a forest policy, they ran around and threw rocks for four years,” he said.
“They tried to tear up every good piece of work that environment groups were doing and calls by the industry to allow the industry to get on with its job.”
The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association represents farmers that manage 880,000 hectares of private forests in the state.
The Association welcomed the Liberal government’s plan to unstitch last year’s forests agreement and set aside another 400,000 hectares for potential harvesting.
TFGA chief executive Jan Davis said the deal was always a political compromise foisted on the state.
She said that legislation enabling the agreement did not reflect any of the four original principles that were outlined to the public by the signatory group at the outset of their peace talks, one of which was to have no adverse impacts on Tasmanisa’s private forests.
