Regional Forest Agreements
Guardian Australia article: After 20 Years of Uneasy Peace the Forest Wars Are Back
With cursory public consultation and without independent reviews the commonwealth and states have committed to renew RFAs on a five-yearly rolling basis, effectively forever. This is despite most states late or failing to do required five-yearly reviews of these 20 year long federal/state govt agreements. Meanwhile logging impact on federally listed threatened species is contested in the supreme court. This …
Regional Forest (Dis) Agreements
This 1999 analysis of the process leading up to the establishment of RFAs illustrates how contentious were the (Dis) Agreements from the first, noting that warning signs existed well before RFAs, that approved further native forest logging, even began to be implemented. Some statistics in the study have been superseded; for example there has been even more forest cover loss …
Why Native Forest Logging Must End
This is an important and comprehensive visual document summarising what is happening to native forests across Australia under Regional Forest Agreements. It provides environmental and economic evidence for why native forest logging needs to end – as soon as possible.
Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Chapter 10: Regional Forest Agreements
In this 10 yearly review of the EPBC Act, the Australian Government’s central piece of environmental legislation introduced in 2000, a panel of experts headed by senior bureaucrat, Dr Allan Hawke analysed the issue of exemptions of Regional Forest Agreements from the EPBC Act on the basis that state regulatory systems were supposed to ensure environmental protections. The review acknowledges …
Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Chapter 6: Forestry
The EPBC Act, the Australian Government’s central piece of environmental legislation introduced in 2000, is required to be reviewed every 10 years. A panel of experts headed by senior bureaucrat, Dr Allan Hawke, carried out the review. In this Chapter 6 the review addresses Forestry and discusses exemptions of Regional Forest Agreements from the EPBC Acton the basis that state …
The need for a comprehensive reassessment of the Regional Forest Agreements in Australia
RFAs need a comprehensive reassessment because, in some jurisdictions if not in all, they have failed to guarantee environmental protection including the conservation of biodiversity as well as failed to provide certainty to forest industries
Abolish Failed Forest Deals 2016
In 2016 30 conservation organisations across Australia signed on to a statement calling for Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) to be Abolished. Putting forward evidence for systematic failure they insisted RFAs should end when they expire, if not before.
Environment Groups Demand End to Logging Of Australia’s Native Forests
This Guardian article addresses why scientists and environment organisations object to renewal of any Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) which would permit native forest logging to continue. Ten RFAs ‘were signed between 1997 and 2001, each running for 20 years, with the first two expiring in 2017.
The agreements between state and federal governments mean proposals to log in designated native …
One Stop Chop – How Regional Forest Agreements Streamline Environmental Destruction
This 2013 exposition of Regional Forest Agreements provides background and legal context of RFAs, analysis of the state regulatory systems under which they operate, discussion re whether the RFA framework adequately addresses current and emerging issues such as climate change, whether RFA state regulatory systems offer the same level of protection as the federal EPBC Act, compliance, monitoring and …
Independent Review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
In 2009 the federal government published the independent 10 year review undertaken regarding the functioning of the principal piece of national environment law, The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Dr Allan Hawke had much to say in the review about the lack of oversight of native forest logging under Regional Forest Agreements, RFAs. This is the chapter …