FT HCV forest analysis counts forests proposed for logging as reserves

A report released late Friday by Forestry Tasmania (FT) reveals that the Tasmanian Government’s plan to start logging in 357,000 hectares of protected old growth and rainforest reserves will derail attempts to secure Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of logging operations on public land.

The report has highlighted that a critical assessment of environmental values needed to secure FT’s FSC certification will be made invalid and need to be ‘reviewed and revised’ if the Government proceeds with its reckless decision to strip protection from important forest areas that are currently part of the ‘Tasmanian Reserve Estate’.

“Forestry Tasmania’s report highlights the lack of logic and peril of double dipping; on one hand the Government wants to log reserved forests whilst on the other it must ensure they are protected to gain FSC certification. You simply can’t have both,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for the Wilderness Society.

“If Premier Hodgman and Minister Barnett change management of forest reserves by changing its legal tenure, changing its land manager and rejecting conservation to allow logging, not only will they escalate uncertainty in the logging industry and take Tasmania backwards, they will set back FT’s FSC bid to square one.

Forestry Tasmania’s High Conservation Values (HCV) Assessment and Management Plan is the first step in a renewed FSC certification attempt. It seeks to respond to non-compliance with FSC rules that caused FT to fail its initial 2014 certification audit.

Crucially, FT’s HCV plan explicitly considers the so called ‘Future Potential Production Forests’ (FPPF) the Hodgman Government proposes to log, as conservation reserves and counts them and their associated values as protected in its analysis (see Scope pg. 8).

“Reversing oldgrowth and rainforest reserves to allow logging will undermine the entire analysis in this High Conservation Value Assessment and on FT’s own admission, force a review, setting the FSC bid backwards,” said Mr Bayley.

The report states:

If any significant change was to occur in the management of land outside of the PTPZ land, the relevant elements of this plan will be reviewed and revised as necessary.

“The Hodgman Government’s plans for logging protected forests are already in disarray. We haven’t seen a bill or clear explanation of how it will work and this report acknowledges that proposed Government action will impede FSC for Forestry Tasmania.

“Government have wedged themselves into a pointless plan to log conservation reserves, threatening the FSC certification that is acknowledged as a crucial accreditation required to get Forestry Tasmania and the industry more broadly, on a sustainable and viable footing.

“It’s time this Government reminded itself that timber market access, top-shelf international certification and social license can’t be secured if it remains committed to rank political grandstanding and point scoring.

“Certainty, confidence and certification for Tasmania’s forests relies on credible conservation reserves to protect high conservation values, that means new national parks not politically-driven policy that has no basis environmental, community or certification needs,” said Mr Bayley.

Official government statistics published on its departmental website ( http://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/Documents/tas%20reserve%20class%20areas%2030th%20june%202015.pdf ) confirm FT’s view that FPPF land is informally reserved and considered part of the ‘Tasmanian ‘Reserve Estate’, contributing to the ‘over 50%’ of Tasmania that is acknowledged as protected in some form of conservation reserve.

The FPPF land includes iconic forests in the Blue Tier, takayna/Tarkine, Douglas-Apsley, Derby, Wielangta, Tasman Peninsula and Bruny Island areas, amongst others.
Vica Bayley, Lyndon Schneiders