Regional Forest Agreements

The Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) program currently underway is the largest, most expen-sive and most comprehensive resource and envi-ronmental planning exercise ever undertaken in Australia. Its political purpose is to get the decades of forest conflicts off the political agenda.

It plans to make comprehensive assessments of 25 million hectares of Australia's 156 million hectares of forests, woodlands and plantations. The assessments form the basis of regional agreements between the Commonwealth and the States which have the formal objectives of providing a system of conservation reserves and resource security for wood-using industries in sustainably managed forests.

The program is multi-faceted and considers to various degrees matters such as Indigenous concerns, public consultation or participation, employment, social and cultural heritage, industrial and plantation development, and forests on private land.

Agreements have been finalised for Tasmania, and for the East Gippsland, and the Central Highlands regions of Victoria. The process is well advanced in other regions of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.

There are considerable differences between regions in the thoroughness of the assessments and in the provisions of the agreements.

The agreements pass Commonwealth environ-mental responsibilities to the States for imple-mentation. They reflect the coming of a new order of professional practice, public process and political power.


Public Discussion

Large public programs warrant public discussion. Are they serving the public interest? Are they just? Are they well conducted? Are the outcomes what we want?

There has been only limited public discussion of the Regional Forest Agreement program. Some agreements have been completed and we can ask:

Will the agreements solve the forest conflicts?
Will they protect the environment?
Will they ensure development?
Will they ensure a sustainable future?
Who gains? Who loses? Who is ignored?
Are we doing them as well as we can?
Are they a sincere attempt or a political fix?
Is the new balance between the States and the Commonwealth the right one?
Will they stand up scientifically, legally, socially or politically in the long run?

As the Regional Forest Agreement program may have important lessons for the management of other sectors, or perhaps for the management of forests in other countries:

What are these lessons?
Which are particular to forests or States?
What is most worthwhile about the program?
What should be avoided in future?

This symposium will provide a forum to raise such questions. Speakers will identify some of the key issues of public interest.