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Western Regional Assessment

In July 2000 the NSW Government initiated a regional assessment of western NSW to guide future planning and encourage partnerships to protect the environment. RACAC coordinated the assessment which involved other agencies - including State Forests of NSW, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Land and Water Conservation and Department of Mineral Resources - as well as local and regional stakeholders.

The Western assessment is considering environmental, economic and social values of forest and non-forest land systems focusing on conservation, land management and regional planning.

The aim of the Western Regional Assessment is to deliver the following outcomes:

  • adequate and complete core data layers to inform regional land use planning (including the collaborative regional framework being developed by Planning NSW), and conservation and resource management.
  • enhanced partnerships between core agencies and interest groups concerned with natural resources and ecological sustainability, to increase sharing of information and to reduce duplication.
  • the identification of a comprehensive, adequate and representative network of protected and managed areas for the Central and Western Divisions.

The first region to be assessed in the Western Regional Assessment was the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion . Initial studies were commenced under the direction of the Resource and Conservation Assessment Council (RACAC) to establish the kind of assessments which would be most useful and applicable to the particular needs of the Western region. These included a data audit and gap analysis and a study of parallel processes undertaken by other agencies and local government - these documents are in PDF format.

The Brigalow Belt South Bioregion (including Pilliga and Goonoo State Forests and nearby national parks and nature reserves) is being undertaken in two stages. Projects include fauna and vegetation surveys, wood resources inventory, socioeconomic studies and Aboriginal heritage and community consultation.

The second region to be assessed in the west is the Nandewar Bioregion . This region lies between the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion and the Upper and Lower North East Regional Forest Agreement areas. Pockets of land around Tenterfield and Nundle have been included to establish continuity across the landscape for the four regions.

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Resource and Conservation Assessment Council (RACAC)
June 1995 - Dec 2003

RACAC presided over the NSW Forest Agreements program
from June 1995 to December 2003.

For continuity this site remains under the name RACAC.
However, project management and monitoring of the
NSW Forest Agreements are now provided by the Resource
and Conservation Unit of the NSW Department of Environment
and Climate Change.