NPA’s vision for public native forests
Our forests provide safe, well-connected habitats for native wildlife, the benefits forests provide to the people of NSW are maximised, and forests help NSW become a world leader in nature-based tourism, recreation and outdoor education.
The current state of play
The people of NSW have two million hectares of public native forests along their State’s east coast. This beautiful country is home to diverse wildlife and myriad forest ecosystems. But the primary use of these forests is timber production. Native forest logging takes place under Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs), 20-year agreements between the NSW and Commonwealth Governments that permit logging. The aim of the RFAs was to allow timber production while protecting nature. Unfortunately, despite the intentions being good, they haven’t worked as planned.
With the RFAs coming to an end from 2019 the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) believes it’s time to think laterally about whether the focus on the forests as a timber resource is the best use of this precious shared asset. The expiry of the RFAs provides a glorious opportunity to shift the use of our forests from logging to conservation, recreation, tourism and education. This would provide a pathway for regional communities to make money from the protection of our most important and unique asset—nature.
Although all publicly-owned entities are exempted an obligation to pay rates, Forestry Corporation differs from other public bodies such as the NPWS by being a for-profit entity. A 2013 analysis of local government rates exemptions in NSW by Deloitte Access Economics concluded that this rates exemption for Forestry Corporation, unlike that of NPWS, is likely to be ‘unwarranted on equity grounds’ due to this goal of profit. In Bega Valley Shire lost rates revenue to council from state forest is estimated at $6.4 million per year. Local government also picks up the tab for infrastructure damage: log trucks are heavy and cause damage to roads. Were Forestry Corporation required to pay its way on rates and infrastructure, the $20 million average annual profit would likely turn into a loss.
Back in 1995, Prime Minister Paul Keating said “[our forests] are a national treasure and their management must be ecologically sustainable and economically clever”. At the moment it’s neither. But it could be both under our plan.
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