Following to the Deferred Forest Areas report of December 1995, the Commonwealth and State governments have signed an agreement (25 January 1996) covering commercial timber harvesting in NSW until 30 July 1996. This Agreement will be revised as a result of the IAP which has refined the areas likely to be required for a CAR reserve system.
The Deferred Forest Assessment process identifies, on a regional basis, those forest areas in current wood production tenures that may need to be set aside from logging so as not to foreclose options for their possible inclusion in a (CAR) reserve system.
The Deferred Forest Agreements were established to enable the Commonwealth to issue woodchip export licences for 1996. However, following completion of the IAP, the governments shall review the status of areas covered by the NSW Agreement and shall consider whether any area should be added to or removed from the Agreement Area.
A proposal by the Commonwealth and NSW Governments to agree to a modified set of areas covered by the Deferred Forest Agreement is one which is likely to trigger the Commonwealth Environment Protection (Impacts of Proposals) Act 1974. This Act is administered by the Commonwealth Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the Act's objective is to ensure that matters affecting the environment to a significant extent are fully examined and taken into account in relation to Commonwealth decisions and actions.
Under this act, the EPA will provide advice to the Minister for the Environment on matters such as the environmental impacts of the proposal, the extent to which the object of the Act has been achieved by the IAP and any recommendations necessary or desirable for the protection of the environment.
The purpose of the Scoping Agreement is to confirm the intention of the Commonwealth and NSW Governments to proceed to the negotiation of Regional Forest Agreements for a number of regions of NSW, and to establish processes and timetables for their completion. This was signed by the NSW Government and the Commonwealth on 25 January 1996 in conjunction with the Deferred Forest Agreement.
Both governments agree that long term ecologically sustainable management of forests and the development of competitive and efficient forest industries are compatible objectives and are committed to providing for these objectives in the regions covered by the Agreement.
Following the signing of the NFPS in 1992, in 1993 an intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Reserve Criteria was established under JANIS, (the Joint Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) / Ministerial Council on Forestry, Fisheries and Aquaculture (MCFFA) NFPS Implementation Sub Committee).
The role of this Technical Working Group is to make recommendations to the Governments on broad criteria on which to base reserve systems to protect the nature conservation values of forests. The Working Group comprises representatives from State forestry and conservation agencies and the CSIRO.
The Working Group's draft report (Broad Criteria for the Establishment of a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative Forest Reserve System), containing a set of proposed reserve selection criteria, was released for public comment in July 1995.
Since then, the JANIS criteria have been substantially revised, taking into account the July 1995 Commonwealth reserve selection criteria position paper and the extensive public submissions on the original JANIS Technical Working Group reserve selection criteria position paper and the July 1995 Commonwealth position paper.
Following JANIS members' final endorsement, in accordance with a recent Cabinet decision, the Commonwealth will circulate the agreed JANIS report to key national interest groups for a three week consultation period, prior to Ministerial Council consideration.
Subject to NSW Government agreement, it is intended that the revised JANIS criteria be used for the CRA process.
The Commonwealth has developed a set of criteria for a national reserve system which includes broad benchmarks for the conservation of forest biodiversity, old growth forest and wilderness areas (National Forest Conservation Reserves, Commonwealth Proposed Criteria, A Position Paper, July 1995). A subset of these criteria were used in the Deferred Forest Assessments.
The Commonwealth's criteria were developed by an advisory panel of scientists chaired by Australia's Chief Scientist. The criteria include:
Following agreement by the NSW Government, this paper will effectively be superseded by the revised JANIS reserve selection criteria position paper. However, given the timeframes involved, for the purpose of the Deferred Forest Agreement and the IAP, the Commonwealth's July 1995 position paper has been used as a benchmark.
Under the Scoping Agreement, the Commonwealth and NSW Governments agreed to work with other States, including through the JANIS process, towards National criteria based on the Commonwealth's position paper of July 1995 and the NFPS. This process is proceeding and it is expected that NSW will establish an agreed position in relation to reserve selection criteria following completion of the IAP.
The conservation assessment criteria applied in the Deferred Forest Assessment have been improved by the completion and validation of State datasets during the IAP. The interpretation and application of the conservation criteria has also been significantly advanced.
The Australian Heritage Commission has statutory obligations under the Australian Heritage Protection Act 1975 to identify places of national estate value, and the Commission will provide advice to the Commonwealth Government on the adverse effects on national estate values and places affected by or adjacent to harvesting operations.
The Australian Heritage Commission has statutory obligations under the Australian Heritage Protection Act 1975 to identify places of national estate value, and the Commonwealth has an obligation to take into account the effect of proposals on the National Estate.
The decision of the Commonwealth Government to review the Deferred Forest Agreements is one which may affect the National Estate. In accordance with Section 30 of the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 the Commission will provide advice to the Commonwealth Government on the adverse effects on national estate values and places affected by or adjacent to harvesting operations.