Regional Forest Agreement – Page 4 – National Parks Association of NSW

Forests are not Magic Puddings

Posted by NPA NSWon May 29, 2017in Winter 2017Leave a comment

Article from the Victorian National Parks Association ’Victoria’s forests are not magic puddings’ March 2017.

Matt Ruchel, member of the Forest Industry Task Force and executive director of the Victorian National Parks Association, explains why sawmills and the pulp and paper industry don’t understand how forests work.

Forests are living ecosystems, not magic puddings, and cannot supply something that doesn’t exist.

The recent declaration by VicForests, the state government’s logging agency, that there is insufficient wood to supply Gippsland sawmills, is hardly surprising – the writing has been on the wall for decades, made worse by the Black Saturday fires.

We can’t see the trees for the wood

Posted by NPA NSWon May 29, 2017May 29, 2017in Winter 2017Leave a comment

^{Dr Oisín Sweeney, Senior Ecologist, National Parks Association of NSW}

This is an amended article from one that first appeared on the Independent Australia website on 27 March 2017

On the morning of March 21^st I got a call from a journalist in response to a media release NPA had put out for International Day of Forests. She wanted me to discuss forests – after she spoke to Planet Ark, who were celebrating World Wood Day!

Community oversight of native forest logging must be restored in NSW

Posted by NPA NSWon May 3, 2017May 4, 2017in Media Releases, Native Forest Logging3 Comments

The National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) welcomes efforts by NSW Greens MLC Dawn Walker to restore community oversight to native forest logging operations on public land.

Expiry of first Regional Forest Agreement offers opportunity to end the forest wars

Posted by NPA NSWon February 16, 2017March 2, 2017in Media ReleasesLeave a comment

Wednesday the 3rd February is a milestone in the long and chequered history of native forest management in Australia. The first Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) expires in East Gippsland following 20 years of destructive logging. Instead of just extending them, prolonging conflict and driving species towards the edge, now is the time to chart a new course says the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA).

Regional Forest Agreements are 20-year deals between the state and federal governments that permit the logging of public native forests. Across Australia, almost 7 million hectares of native eucalyptus forests are logged under 10 RFAs[1]. The RFAs were an attempt to marry conservation, logging and recreation to bring an end to the ‘forest wars’ that pitted conservationists against the logging industry. They haven’t worked.

Regional Forest Agreements: Nice idea but total failure!

Posted by NPA NSWon May 13, 2016March 16, 2017in NPA in the NewsLeave a comment

On Wednesday this week, the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) launched a new report entitled Regional Forest Agreements in NSW. Have they achieved their aims? In short, the answer is no — far from it, writes Dr Oisín Sweeney.

Source: Regional Forest Agreements: Nice idea but total failure!

Review of evidence concludes Regional Forest Agreements a failed model for forest management (Parks Protection News)

Posted by on May 11, 2016March 3, 2017in Media ReleasesLeave a comment

Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) that have been the framework for public forest management in NSW for 20 years have failed to achieve any of their top-line aims, a new study has found.

The Agreements, which were the centrepiece of the peace deal that ended the “Forest Wars” of the 1980s and 1990s, were supposed to lead to:

Creation of a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of forest reserves;
Implementation and enforcement of ecologically sustainable forest management practices;
Development of a viable, ecologically sustainable timber industry;
Ongoing research into ecological, economic, and social aspect of forest management.