THE
REGIONAL FOREST
CONCEPT
A DISCUSSION PAPER
TO INFORM
SOUTHERN FORESTS LAND-USE STRATEGY
March 1996
PREPARED BY
THE SOUTHERN FORESTS COMMUNITY GROUP
C/- REX DIREEN RSD 870 NICHOLLS RIVULET TASMANIA 7112 TEL 002 951628
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COMMUNITY CONCERNS:
ABORIGINAL
ARTS AND CRAFTS
BEE-KEEPERS
BOAT BUILDERS
CONSERVATION
COUNTRY SAWMILLERS
TIMBER WORKERS
TOURISM
REGIONAL FOREST:
CONCEPT
RATIONALE
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES
ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE
FOREST MANAGEMENT:
LOCAL ADAPTATION OF PROSILVA PRINCIPLES
CLEARFELL CRITIQUE
CONSERVATION ADVANTAGES
COSTS AND BENEFITS:
HUON VALLEY COUNCIL
TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT
COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT
ATTACHMENTS:
SFCG CONSULTATION PARTICIPANTS
NEW FOREST MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
LAND TENURE MAP
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DECLARATION
INTRODUCTION
The Southern Forests of Tasmania are managed for their world heritage values, national heritage values and for their commercial values from a state-wide perspective. The local community who have the greatest claim to commercial and cultural use of adjacent public forests are currently the most disadvantaged interest group. The traditional small-scale high-quality local users of our native forests rely upon the diversity of the resource for their economic survival. They are caught between the accepted need to fully protect significant areas of our natural heritage for posterity (WHA) and the currently preferred (clearfell and hot burn) process of large-scale timber harvesting. This method of harvesting mature mixed forests acts to reduce ecological diversity after the first harvesting cycle and virtually eliminates it after the second rotation due to commence around 2015. The establishment of a Huon Valley Regional Forest as proposed within this discussion paper will redress this situation and ensure that all the claims on the Southern Forests - international, national, state and regional are in balance.
The proposed Huon Valley Regional Forest should be classified within the Forest Practices Code as a Managed Resource Protected Area; defined as an area containing predominantly unmodified natural systems, managed to ensure long term protection and maintenance of long term biological diversity, while providing at the same time a sustainable flow of natural products and services to meet community needs. (IUCN Land Management Category VI). The Huon Valley Regional Forests would consist of the remaining commercially available mature mixed forests and the national estate area of Southern Tasmania and will provide "resource security" in perpetuity for the small volume, high value-adding traditional users of the Southern Forests resource.
Forestry Tasmania is responsible for the implementation of the state-wide Forests and Forest Industry Strategy (FFIS) developed through an extensive consultation process carried out during 1990. Unfortunately, the consultation process was not exhaustive and, perhaps because of the polarised nature of the land-use debate, the unforseen regional effects of the current state-wide strategy remain unaddressed. This is an oversight that the Southern Forests Community Group Inc. (SFCG) wish to have corrected before the economic and cultural opportunities still available within our community are lost forever. Over the next twenty years Forestry Tasmania plan to end old-growth forest harvesting within Tasmania. This schedule coincides with the virtual elimination of the mature mixed forests of the Huon. The consequent loss of commercial access to local mixed forests will result in further social and economic disruption throughout this already disadvantaged region. Our research shows no rational foundation for the loss of the natural diversity represented by these forests when economically viable management alternatives are possible.
The SFCG is advocating that the Huon Valley Regional Forests (55000 hectares) be managed for the highest quality production possible while retaining all the unique characteristics of our original forest heritage including full protection of the "deferred forests" as well as the East Picton region that was once part of the Hartz Mountain National Park. Current management of the commercially available forests of this region (135800 hectares) is specifically designed to eventually convert virtually all these forests into a eucalypt monoculture to produce pulpwood and low quality sawlogs.
Within an increasingly uniform world premium value is coming to rest on unique high-quality produce. Cultural tourists wish to experience a "sense of place" based on the special relationship of a community to its environment. In marketing terms our natural advantage consists of the diversity and quality of the product available from our commercially managed old-growth forests since eucalypt plantations and industrial forests for both fibre and sawlog are being grown faster, and harvested more cheaply, in other parts of the world. However, Forestry Tasmania are managing the bulk of our remaining non-wilderness old-growth forests within the context of the short-term timber/fibre market and carrying out a land management strategy that will eliminate the future possibility of marketing or building upon the unique natural advantages that presently exist within the Huon region.
Forestry Tasmania is responsible for implementing and monitoring a sustainable forest management strategy on behalf of all Tasmanians. The State Government must now accept that the people most affected by forest management decisions, the local communities, have the right to direct participation in the management process in order to protect their current and future access to the economic and cultural benefits of local native forests in all their natural diversity.
Community Forests are a traditional part of European forest management and are most prominent in the countries with the greatest levels of commercial wood production. Community Forests are unknown in the UK and Ireland where forestry is economically insignificant. The proposed Huon Valley Regional Forest would directly create 45 new jobs within three to five years of it's establishment. In addition, the long promised Woodskills Institute for Geeveston currently under investigation by the Huon Valley Regional Development Board would result in the creation of another 49 jobs. This project is dependant for it's authenticity on a sustainable local supply of the full diversity of Southern Forest timbers. This represents 94 new jobs for the loss of 13 existing forest-based positions without taking into account the consequent downstream employment effects of these two interlinked regional development projects.
At a public meeting called by the SFCG to present the Regional Forest concept at the Huonville Town Hall on February 8, 1996 Senator Shayne Murphy moved the following motion seconded by Senator Robert Bell:
This meeting calls upon the soon to be elected Parliament of Tasmania to establish a Huon Valley Regional Forest Board within Forestry Tasmania to achieve the following objectives:
to support and promote sustainable and diverse regional development;
to allow local participation in management decisions regarding the Huon Crown Forests;
ecologically sustainable management of the national estate area and the remaining mature mixed forests of the Huon.
Following an extended debate the public meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The community of Southern Tasmania has a symbiotic relationship with the Southern Forests. For example, Tasmanian beekeepers are dependant upon the leatherwood honey flow of the old-growth forests for their commercial survival. The horticultural industry, in turn, relies upon beekeepers to provide the pollination services essential for the production of crops valued at $111M annually. Within the next 20 years the present management strategy will result in the particular scale and fine working properties of mature Celery Top Pine and 110 year old eucalypts, amongst others, being no longer available locally in any significant quantities to the ship-builders, furniture-makers, artists and craftspersons of Southern Tasmania. Within our community these people play a vital role as catalysts for the cultural and economic development of the Huon region, especially within the increasingly important tourism industry, however, they cannot be expected to increase their investment or pass on their skills within the context of a rapid local decline of their essential resource. This type of enterprise (existing and potential) will be lost to other regions of Tasmania where the necessary resource is more readily available. While the Huon community is the big loser in such a scenario, the state itself will be disadvantaged by the loss of diversity and opportunity within any one of its regions.
The establishment of a Huon Valley Regional Forest under the management umbrella of Forestry Tasmania (See diagram page 27) would sustain and build upon the social and economic benefits the surrounding community already enjoys from its use of the mixed forests of Southern Tasmania. The Regional Forest management strategy would satisfy the requirements of the National Forests Policy within this region, resolve the Southern Forests conservation debate, and reverse the present increasing potential for wild-fire.
The proposed Huon Valley Regional Forest would operate under the direction of a Board of Management appointed by the following organisations: Forestry Tasmania (3), Parks and Wildlife (2), Huon Valley Council (2), Huon Valley Regional Development Board, Tourism Tasmania and the Southern Forests Community Group Inc. The Board would take advice from an advisory committee representing all appropriate corporate and community interests. Following an annual contribution to consolidated revenue any financial surplus would be used to provide local employment and training opportunity or invested in local economic development opportunities. The Regional Forest staff would support and facilitate community landcare activity within the region with particular emphasis on working with local schools. The Esperance Forest and Heritage Centre, currently the responsibility of the Huon Valley Council, could be a showcase for the new organisation.
Effective management of the Huon Valley Regional Forest on an ecologically sustainable basis would involve a change of emphasis from the current concentration on harvesting plans to the development of detailed and comprehensive forest management plans for each small distinctive area of the Regional Forest. A comprehensive marketing strategy for the high-quality wood and non-wood products of the Regional Forest, with an emphasis on local value-adding, would be developed from the start. Certification of timber products as the result of ecologically sustainable forest management practices would result in a ready export market and premium prices for our local forest-based industries. The proposed Regional Forest Management Unit with an associated Woodskills Institute would result in at least 94 new jobs within the Huon region for the loss of 13 existing positions.
The ecologically sustainable practises enforced by the Huon Valley Regional Forest Board of Management would result in an initialreduction in the volume of timber extracted from the Regional Forests. The current legislated state-wide commitment of 300000 cubic metres of eucalypt veneer log and sawlog available to the industry would need to be temporarily reduced to approximately 275000 - 280000 cubic metres in the immediate period of management readjustment. The local pulpwood supply would also be depressed. Subsequent years would bring steady increases in the quality and the sustainable volume of sawlogs harvested from the Regional Forest.
The Commonwealth Government can facilitate regional development and enhance the national estate values of the Southern Forests by providing appropriate compensation to Forestry Tasmania for the depreciated value of roadwork's within the national estate area.
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
ABORIGINAL
The South East Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation (SETAC) is concerned about the location, recognition and protection of the many known and unknown heritage sites that exist within the Southern Forests.
The least disturbed sites are likely to be in the areas of old-growth forest.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Conversion of mixed forest into eucalypt forests seriously reduces the future availability of the special species that are of particular interest to the creative community.
A sustainable yield of these products from the Regional Forest will provide "resource security" for the diverse members of this industry.
BEEKEEPERS
The Leatherwood honey flow of the Southern Forests provides the beekeepers with approximately 75% of their livelihood and supports the hives necessary for the pollination of commercial orchards and the production of seeds for market gardens and pasture species throughout the region. The indirect value to the community of this incidental pollination is estimated to be $111 million (DPI 1993/4). Beekeepers also point out that the cumulative value of the honey flow from Leatherwood-rich forest is greater than the value of the adjacent timber extracted over an 85 year logging cycle.
The remaining areas of Leatherwood-rich forest are barely enough to maintain the viability of the current members of the industry. Forestry Tasmania are further decreasing the current and future supply of Leatherwood within the Southern Forests. This activity will place serious and unnecessary constraints on the potential production, in terms of quality and quantity, of the rapidly expanding horticultural industry of Southern Tasmania. Leatherwood preservation must be a top priority within forest management planning and no further stands of Leatherwood-rich forest should be cut or burned.
BOAT BUILDERS
Wooden Boat Building is a traditional Huon activity. The industry is currently enjoying a world-wide revival of interest. The Inaugural (biannual) Australian Wooden Boat Festival held in Hobart during November 1994 was a major success. The industry is labour intensive, high value-adding and requires small quantities of high-quality special timbers. Current forestry practises are of great concern as Celery Top Pine is being logged at an unsustainable rate and will no longer be locally available within twenty years.
Local availability of a full range of high quality forest products will enable establishment of a WoodSkills Institute for the Huon along the same lines as Dr. John Young's highly successful Wooden Boat Building School.
CONSERVATION
A significant sector of the community are concerned by the detrimental environmental effects of the current Huon Forests management strategy.
Providing they have not been significantly affected by previous forestry activity, all the areas recognised as worthy of reservation by the following parties should be protected.
- The Australian Heritage Commission (December 1987);
- The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) (May 1989 and
December 1990);
- Tasmanian Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage (June 1990);
- World Heritage Bureau (June 1989);
- Peter Hitchcock, Commissioner of the Helsham Inquiry (May 1988);
- Forest and Forest Industry Council's Panel of Experts (August 1990).
COUNTRY SAWMILLERS
Country sawmills are labour intensive operations that maximise the value of the timber they process. They are the mainstay of Tasmania's timber industry in the rural areas of the State. The ability of the sawyer to handle and cut each log according to its individual peculiarities at every stage of the sawing process means these mills are able to achieve a high percentage of sawn timber from lower quality logs. Category 2 sawlogs make up most of the country sawmillers resource - these logs are essentially the top end of the pulp or woodchip category and would otherwise be pulped or chipped.
Country sawmills have come to draw most of their sawlog supplies from private forests but are now facing a drastic decline in the quantity of timber available to them. This situation has evolved primarily due to competition by woodchipping companies for the private forest resource. These companies are able to offer landholders royalties for virtually all the solid timber available and then pass on the sawlog categories to associated large sawmills. This process does not work in reverse since country sawmillers are generally unable to access a reliable market for pulp and woodchip category logs. Furthermore, in the past, the standard harvesting procedure of the woodchip companies was clearfell thus resulting in the future sawlog supply (young trees) being taken for pulp. To make matters worse, the major Crown sawmills are also competing aggressively for the private sawlog resource due to cutbacks in the supply of available Crown sawlogs. In short, the total supply of private sawlogs is being drastically overcut and it has been estimated that the current rate of consumption of around 230,000 cubic metres will be reduced to just 70,000 by the year 2005.
Unless some form of "resource security" is made available to our country sawmillers from our public forests most of them will eventually be forced to close down.