New Forest Management Acts for Tasmania
Wednesday 13 November 2013 @ 10.55 a.m. | Legal Research
Tasmania has recently passed its Forest Management Act 2013 (No. 49) (the principal Act) and Forest Management (Consequential Amendments) Act 2013 (No. 50), both of which aim to provide for a transition of Forestry Tasmania’s business model to ensure sustainability of the business into the long term and ensure greater clarity of focus for Forestry Tasmania on its commercial functions.
Background to the Changes
Large scale changes to Tasmania’s forest industry have been taking place in recent years, leading to adverse market conditions and structural changes in the industry. This has resulted in Forestry Tasmania operating in a vastly different environment than it has in the past.
This is including but not limited to Tasmania passing the Tasmanian Forests Agreement on 30 April 2013, with the aim of ending one of the world’s longest-running forestry conflicts. The deal allocates a further half-million hectares of Tasmania’s outstanding high conservation value forests, including the iconic forests of the Styx, Weld, Upper Florentine, Great Western Tiers and Tarkine. In return, the industry receives guaranteed rights to 137,000 cubic metres of high quality sawlogs which they will get from more secure Permanent Forest Production Reserves.
With the necessity and durability of this agreement in question, URS Australia Pty Ltd was appointed as an independent advisor to undertake the strategic review of Forestry Tasmania to run in parallel with the review of the Tasmanian Forests Agreement, with the government recognising its current business model was ineffective and unsustainable.
The Acts implement the recommendations of the report in two distinct ways:
- Firstly, by transferring Forestry Tasmania’s system of formal forest reserves and associated non-commercial reserve management activities to DPIPWE, and
- Secondly by providing a narrower, primarily commercial, focus for Forestry Tasmania.
The Changes in the New Acts
The principal Act effects the repeal of the Forestry Act 1920 (TAS), as well as defining the terminology in regards to permanent timber production zoned land. In particular, the combination of the two Acts aim to:
- Bring the governance and operational structure of the Forestry corporation fully under the Government Business Enterprises Act 1995;
- Provide for the future management of the permanent timber production zone land by Forestry Tasmania as the Forest Manager;
- Maintain the annual minimum wood production supply requirements for high quality sawlog and veneer logs at 137,000 cubic meters;
- Continue rights of access to the permanent timber production zone land where it is not incompatible with the functions or responsibilities of the Forest Manager;
- Reinforce that the Forest Manager must manage the permanent timber production zone land consistent with the principles of forest management established under the Forest Practices Code;
- Declare approximately 221,000 hectares of forest reserves to be either regional reserves or conservation areas under the Nature Conservation Act 2002. Responsibility for this land is transferred to the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment (DPIPWE);
- Preserve and continue a range of authorisations, entitlements and arrangements with respect to land that is either permanent timber production zone land or land to be declared as reserves under the Nature Conservation Act 2002;
- Ensure that the “future reserve land” continues to be managed by and subject to the Tasmanian Forests Agreement Act 2013 and that this Bill does not interfere with the TFA process;
Strengthen the capacity of the Forest Manager to manage access to the land under its control so that it can undertake its responsibilities and ensure the safety of people on and within that land;
Continue to provide for the construction of, and access to, forest roads, including those forest roads that are in forest reserves that will become regional reserves or conservation areas; and
Ensure the leave and superannuation entitlements of Forestry Tasmania employees who accept employment offers from DPIPWE to assist in the implementation of the reserve land transition under the Bill are recognised.
The Minister in his second reading speech stated the purpose of the bills' introduction as:
Revenue generated from Forestry Tasmania’s commercial timber operations has historically been used to offset the cost of performing its other non-commercial functions, including significant reserve management responsibilities. Implicitly, the State has borne the cost of this approach through lower returns from Forestry Tasmania. This was an accepted approach while Forestry Tasmania was profitable and the revenues from commercial operations more than accounted for the cost of non-commercial operations. However, the strategic shifts in the forest industry mean that the current arrangements cannot continue – doing ‘nothing’ is not an option.
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Sources:
Tasmanian Forests Agreement: deeply flawed, worth backing
Forestry Tasmania Frequently Asked Questions
TimeBase LawOne for both the Forest Management Act 2013 (No. 49) and the Forest Management (Consequential Amendments) Act 2013 (No. 50)
