Source: NSW CRA/RFA Steering Commitee

Forest Forum Sets the Ground Rules

14 July 1997

The first Southern Regional Forest Forum meeting on Saturday saw the ground rules set for local participation in the southern comprehensive regional assessments (CRAs) for the area’s Regional Forest Agreement.

More than twenty members of the newly formed forum met in Queanbeyan for a day of discussions and briefings from the State and Commonwealth Governments.

Consisting of representatives from regional groups with a major stake in the future of the forests, the forum will act as a communication channel between that community and the State/Commonwealth Steering Committee for the CRAs.

The assessments, run by the NSW Resource and Conservation Assessment Council (RACAC) and the Commonwealth Forests Task Force, will provide the basis for the first of four Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) between the NSW and Commonwealth Governments. Regional Forest Forums have also been established in other RFA regions of the State.

RACAC Director, Rex Bowen, and NSW project leader for the Forests Task Force, Richard Webb, emphasised the forum’s critical role in the forest assessments.

"This is the first time that forums of this type - in which the community advises Government - have been established to deal with forest issues," Mr Bowen said.

"Membership of this forum is drawn from major forest stakeholders in the regional community, and your participation reflects your commitment to reaching lasting solutions for the region’s forests."

Mr Webb said that the forest assessments are the most systematic and comprehensive ever undertaken. "Ranging from systematic and targeted flora and fauna surveys to cultural and natural heritage assessments and specialised social and economic studies, they will provide a solid basis for the Southern RFA," he said.

The chairman of the forum, Professor Peter Kanowski, is Professor of Forestry at ANU. Professor Kanowski said the forum’s role is to seek local and regional solutions to the formal requirements of the CRAs, and to advise the governments’ Steering Committee on those solutions.

"If this is going to happen then we must strive for consensus," Professor Kanowski said. "We need to agree from the outset that members of the forum are working towards the common goal of lasting environmental and economic solutions for the region."

Contacts: Ruth Dewsbury (Cwlth) 06 274 1904
Gillian Higginson (RACAC) 02 9228 3991

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