Regional Forest Agreement Process Research Articles

The effect of gap size on growth and species composition of 15-year-old regrowth in mixed blackbutt forests

Summary In north-eastern New South Wales (NSW) the Regional Forest Agreement process has transferred more than 400 000 ha of state forests to national park, and restricted silviculture to ‘single tree selection’ and a light form of ‘Australian group selection’. While these silvicultural systems are theoretically well suited to ecologically sustainable forest management, there is concern that in their current form they are not achieving adequate regeneration or optimising the growth of that regeneration. This is of particular concern for mixed-species blackbutt forest, for which there is no quantitative research concerning the growth and composition of regeneration within group-selection gaps. We address this issue by: (1) quantifying the effect of gap size, and other gap characteristics including distance from gap edge, on the growth of regeneration; and (2) assessing the effect of gap size on the composition of regeneration. We use the answers to these questions to recommend a gap size for group selection silviculture in mixed-species blackbutt forests in north-eastern NSW. We measured attributes describing the growth and composition of regeneration in nine circular group-selection gaps in mixed—species blackbutt forest near Coffs Harbour and Wauchope. These gaps contained 14.5–15.5-y-old regeneration and provided three replicates of small (0.27–0.3 ha), medium (0.45–0.67 ha) and large (0.93–0.97 ha) gaps. ANOVA testing indicated significantly (P < 0.05) lower height, diameter and volume growth of dominant blackbutt stems up to five metres from gap edge. Outside this zone growth remained fairly constant, indicating dominant blackbutt trees were susceptible to suppression only in close proximity to gap edges. Multiple regression analysis confirmed the relatively short distance from gap edges over which suppression occurred, with distance to closest gap edge explaining a small proportion of the variation in the models fitted for tree—and plot-level growth. The origin of blackbutt regeneration within gaps was a significant effect in tree-level growth models, with planted stems having increased diameter and volume growth compared with stems regenerated from natural seedfall. Gap size had no significant effect on the composition of regeneration. We conclude that for the range of gaps tested, 1-ha gaps are optimal for growth because they minimise the proportion of gap within 5 m of the retained forest edge, without altering composition. Larger gaps have also been shown to have operational and economic benefits compared with smaller gaps.

‘Babes in the woods’: geographers reflect on their participation in a forest consultancy project

ABSTRACTThis article engages experimentally with the idea of self-reflexivity in research. It stems from the reflections of three geographers who a decade ago undertook an Australian government consultancy, surveying public attitudes to forests. The consultancy project was part of the New South Wales Government's Regional Forest Agreement process which, amid much controversy, aimed to incorporate a deeper participation of stakeholders in decision-making processes. The article critically reflects on the context and production of academic research through a narrated script — a play, with actors and scenes — reconstructed from key moments or ‘flashpoints’ in the research process, when issues exposing the partiality of academic knowledge production were paramount. In adopting a ‘dramatic’ mode of communication, we intend to achieve two things: first, to capture in the article an acknowledgement that the production of academic knowledge incorporates hidden power relationships and alternative non-academic identities; and second, to allegorically represent the ways in which the process of conducting the research was itself a play within which the authors struggled to maintain integrity and enact agency. Although we hint at important ethical issues in research, it is left to readers to draw their own conclusions about how institutional positionalities and personal identities affected the academic knowledge production process.

Chaos theory and assessment of forest stakeholder attitudes towards Australian forest policy

The Regional Forest Agreement process has dominated Australian forest policy for the past decade. The RFA process set in place a mechanism by which benchmark conservation values were established for forest ecosystems, whilst addressing the needs of the timber industry. The outcomes of a number of RFA's have been fraught with controversy. Key stakeholder groups have shown disagreement with processes and outcomes of methods employed by government both in establishing conservation reserves and areas allocated to timber harvesting. This research uses non-linear techniques to examine the dynamical behavior in stakeholder responses and to identify patterns of behavior that may lead to prediction of stakeholder responses. The method developed in this research provides a bridge between social sciences and Chaos theory. 1 1 The method, analysis and results described in this paper are based on the doctoral thesis entitled A Chaos theory interpretation of community attitudes towards Australian forest policy ( Musselwhite, 2003).

Vegetation condition mapping at a landscape‐scale across Victoria

Vegetation condition mapping at a landscape‐scale across Victoria

What Are They Taking Us For? The Participatory Nature of Western Australia's Regional Forest Agreement Process

The native forests of Western Australia (WA) have long been the subject of heated debate between policy makers, conservationists and the timber industry. A critical element of the forest dispute has been the issue of public input into the political decision-making processes responsible for forest policy. Over the last 40 years, there has been a growth in the demands by the public for active involvement in decisions on nature conservation in WA, which were largely met by a resistant and at times hostile political apparatus. In this context, this paper offers an analysis of the participatory nature of WA's Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process during the late 1990s, a Federal Government initiative aimed at resolving the nation-wide forest dispute. WA RFA stakeholders' perceptions of the inclusiveness of the process are presented for the purpose of providing a gauge for the extent to which community demands for participation were enabled and also as an assessment of whether WA's RFA process qualifies as an example of good governance. The findings point toward a systemic failure in the management of the Western Australian RFA, for the process constrained opportunities for stakeholder input and deliberation- based decision-making. In this context, the authors highlight the need for an opening of political structures and processes to enable and facilitate active stakeholder participation.

What Are They Taking Us For? The Participatory Nature of Western Australia's Regional Forest Agreement Process

The native forests of Western Australia (WA) have long been the subject of heated debate between policy makers, conservationists and the timber industry. A critical element of the forest dispute has been the issue of public input into the political decision-making processes responsible for forest policy. Over the last 40 years, there has been a growth in the demands by the public for active involvement in decisions on nature conservation in WA, which were largely met by a resistant and at times hostile political apparatus. In this context, this paper offers an analysis of the participatory nature of WA's Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process during the late 1990s, a Federal Government initiative aimed at resolving the nation-wide forest dispute. WA RFA stakeholders' perceptions of the inclusiveness of the process are presented for the purpose of providing a gauge for the extent to which community demands for participation were enabled and also as an assessment of whether WA's RFA process qualifies as an example of good governance. The findings point toward a systemic failure in the management of the Western Australian RFA, for the process constrained opportunities for stakeholder input and deliberation-based decision-making. In this context, the authors highlight the need for an opening of political structures and processes to enable and facilitate active stakeholder participation.

The use of science in environmental policy: a case study of the Regional Forest Agreement process in Western Australia

This paper explores the notion of pluralism as it relates to the involvement of science in processes of environmental policy formulation. In particular, it focuses attention on the dominance of normal science within the Australian debate on commercial forest use, management, and conservation. It presents case study information from the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process, a policy initiative designed to end a long-running conflict over public forestland. It then analyzes the use of science within this political process, along with the respective impacts of different voices within science on the RFA outcomes. The case study data highlight the vulnerability of reductionist science within complex political debates and support arguments for a widening of the scientific basis of policy processes to include alternative ways of understanding nature-society relations. The paper contends that such a broadening will make science not only more robust, but also more valuable as a problem-solving tool in future decision-making processes on land use, conservation, and broader sustainability questions. It also considers the obstacles facing pluralism.

Australia's regional forest agreement process: analysis of the potential and problems

Abstract The 1990s heralded a new era in forest policy in Australia with the introduction of The National Forest Policy Statement which provided a framework under which native forest resources would be protected whilst also permitting ecologically sustainable timber harvesting. However, the implementation of the statement through the Regional Forest Agreements by state governments appear to contradict the conditions of the policy. Political bias towards development imperatives in implementing RFAs is evident. Community involvement in RFAs has not been satisfactory for sustainable forest use and management, with ongoing dissatisfaction from some stakeholder groups. There is still increased demand for protection of what remains of the various forest reserves. Aboriginal issues have not been settled in line with the expectation of the policy. There are continuing conflicts between the Commonwealth Government and some state governments.

The Victorian Forestry Roundtable Meeting: a discussion of transitions to sustainability in Victorian forests

Summary A Forestry Roundtable Meeting was convened at Marysville in Central Victoria in August—September 2002 to explore issues associated with improvement of the management of Victoria's montane ash forests. Representatives were invited from government agencies, timber interests and conservation groups. In addition, scientists from Australian and overseas academic institutions attended. The aims of the meeting were to: (a) provide a forum for stakeholders to engage in constructive dialogue about approaches to forest management, water production, and biodiversity conservation in the Central Highlands of Victoria, and (b) highlight to stakeholders that resource management issues faced in the Central Highlands of Victoria have been faced in forests elsewhere in the world and by other resource sectors in Australia. Many valuable insights emerged from the Forestry Roundtable Meeting. Three major issues emerged from the meeting and are discussed in this paper. (1) There was considerable stakeholder dissatisfaction with the Regional Forest Agreement process—both from industry and from conservation perspectives. There was concern about overcommitment of resources, with the predicted timber yields exceeding actual yields from montane ash forests. It was argued that a more transparent participatory (rather than consultative) process was needed in which all stakeholders (including government agencies) had access to the same (primary) data and analytical procedures. Many participants believed this would engender greater trust in, and public ownership of, the Regional Forest Agreement process. (2) The reduced technical capacity of resource management agencies was raised as a major concern. Such a capacity is fundamental to improving forest management. This problem is not restricted to Victorian or Australian forests. For example, the extremely poor record on forest monitoring (such as biodiversity responses to logging disturbance) has been recognised as a problem worldwide and is considered likely to be a limiting factor in discussions on how to improve forest management practices in the future. (3) The widespread use of clearfelling to harvest and regenerate montane ash forests was considered to be a major issue. Developing and applying harvest practices that are more ecologically sensitive in at least some areas of logged forest was considered critical to resolving some of the conflict between timber and other values. Guidelines for developing such methods are available elsewhere in Australia (e.g. Tasmania) and around the world (e.g. North America and Scandinavia). A concrete outcome of the Forestry Roundtable Meeting was a broadly-based commitment to begin experimenting with new sil vicultural systems that retain more vegetation on logged coupes and to determine the value of such approaches for biodiversity conservation.

Resolving production-environment conflicts: the case of the Regional Forest Agreement Process in Australia

This paper evaluates the development of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) as a means of reducing timber production-environment conflicts in Australia, with particular reference to the development of the Regional Forest Agreement in Northeast Victoria. Regional Forest Agreements are formal legal agreements between federal and state governments. The processes associated with their production have a number of innovative features from a social perspective, but the economic analysis associated with their production fails to put any value on the non-market values associated with native forests. The processes involved in the production of Regional Forest Agreements may result in economic benefit through local capacity building and conflict resolution amongst different stakeholders. However, there may be a gap between the intention and the outcome, in that RFAs have in some cases polarised and exacerbated conflicts.

Can't See the Trees for the Wood

The forests of south west Western Australia have become sites for debate and conflict in the Regional Forest Agreement process. Different discourses, frames and story-lines are used to interpret and contest the policy agendas of natural resource management. Actors communicate their viewpoints through various means. Use of symbolism is rife. To date, however, a more environmmentally-based discursive reframing has not penetrated the resource-dominated discourse of Western Australian forest management. Much strategic institutional work is necessary if actors are to see both the wood and the trees.

Expanding Horizons: environmental and cultural values within natural boundaries

Indigenous communities have much to teach heritage professionals about the identification and management of cultural heritage values. A holistic approach to cultural heritage has long been promoted by indigenous communities; recent discussions in the professional heritage world about social and aesthetic value and debates about cultural landscapes all have precursors in indigenous concepts of cultural heritage. Since 1992 some states in Australia have been engaged in regional assessments of the environmental, heritage, social and economic values of forests. These assessments aim at providing expert advice upon which decisions about the future use of these forests will be made. The inclusion of cultural heritage assessments as part of the overall resource assessment is notable. Regional resource studies such as the Regional Forest Agreement process (incorporating assessments of natural, cultural, social and economic values) provide an opportunity to adopt a more holistic approach to cultural heritage management. In this as in other matters, indigenous communities appear to be leading the way, with the development of catchment resource management models and co-management strategies. As part of the Regional Forest Agreement process in Southeast Queensland (SEQ), two projects have identified principles and protocols concerning the management of cultural heritage values in the forests.

Regional Forest (Dis)Agreements: The RFA Process and Sustainable Forest Management

The Regional Forest Agreement process was initiated by the Federal Government in the early 1990s in an attempt to defuse the political sensitivity of forest management decisions. It created a mechanism by which State and Federal governments could agree on the long-term management and use of forests, providing secure industry access while protecting environmental and cultural values. It is the largest inter-governmental natural resource planning process undertaken in Australia to date and as such serves as a useful case study for natural resource managers in Australia and elsewhere. This article assesses the extent to which the Regional Forest Agreement process has achieved these goals.

Nature Conservation and the Regional Forest Agreement Process

The regional forest agreement process (RFA) arose from bitter, politically difficult, debates on the future of Australia's forests. The approach to solving this debate that arose from the ecologically sustainable development and other processes was to take care of the reasonable conservation needs first, then facilitate economic development in the remaining forests. Unfortunately, the scientifically derived criteria for forest conservation developed by the Commonwealth were amended in the course of the RFA process such that the approach effectively became yet another compromise between conservation and development. To date, the public involvement in the development of regional compromises has been in the form of information and opinion input rather than decision-making, and the outcomes of both the East Gippsland and Tasmanian RFAs have not been accepted by conservationists as adequate. In the Tasmanian RFA in particular, there is a large distance between the outcomes and some of the indicative targets as expressed in the original Commonwealth criteria. The major gaps are in the security of the reserve system from development, the assured protection in reserves of known elements of biological diversity, and the failure to assure that existing public native forest, whether reserved or not, is not converted to other land uses.

Credible Science? Evaluating the Regional Forest Agreement Process in Western Australia

Government proponents of the Regional Forest Agreement process in Western Australia have highlighted the use of scientific information in order to set criteria by which forests can be both reserved and managed in the future. Given the long-term significance of the process, and the central role played by science, we asked what would constitute a ‘scientifically-credible process’ for assessing a natural resource management issue? When could scientists in general, or conservation biologists in particular, be satisfied that such a process has been achieved? To address these questions we first examined the notion of sound science, based on norms for scientific processes, and the standards required by a range of journals to assess contributions prior to publication. From these, we developed criteria for assessing whether or not a process was scientific, asking: ▪ has the process involved scientists? ▪ has the process provided a framework, or facilitated in another way, scientific debate? ▪ has the process used scientific norms of peer review, publication and conferences? ▪ has the process involved explicit methodology from which conclusions can be justifiably drawn? These questions were examined for the phases of the process during which scientific information was compiled, assessed and integrated, predominantly the Comprehensive Regional Assessment. Aspects dealing with the issues of biodiversity, endangered species, old-growth and wilderness were examined since they invoked the science of ecology. It was clear that the Regional Forest Agreement process had involved scientists, albeit selectively, but that it had not facilitated scientific debate, failed to adhere strictly to norms of peer review, and failed to be explicit regarding many methodologies employed. We concluded that the process could not be checked, and therefore failed to achieve what would notionally be regarded as credible science.

Valuing the Social Dimension: Social Assessment in the Regional Forest Agreement Process

For many people, the Australian Regional Forest Agreement process (RFA) is just another forest planning process. However what makes it quite different from others of its kind, is that for the first time social assessment has been incorporated as part of the decision-making process. Governments have made a firm commitment to the Australian public that before decisions relating to forest use can be made, detailed social, economic, environment and heritage assessments must be undertaken. These assessments will provide valuable scientific information to inform the development of Regional Forest Agreements for each region and will ensure that all values in relation to forests are fully considered. This article presents the model of social assessment that is currently being employed in the RFA process in Victoria, and provides an overview of the way in which social issues are being incorporated in resource planning and policy development in the forest sector.

オーストラリアにおける環境保護政策 さらなる保護に向けて

The National Forest Policy, in conjunction with the Wood and Paper Industries Strategy and the Regional Forest Agreement process, are key elements in the Government's policy of integrating industry and conservation objectives for Australia's native forests. This integration will remove uncertainty over access to native forest resources in Australia, and allow for the establishment of an internationally competitive forest-based industry in Australia. This industry will not only be internationally competitive, but will operate within the framework of a world class reserve system under the international guidelines of ecologically sustainable forest management, as determined and applied by the Montreal Process criteria and indicators.

National Biodiversity Council

The NBC continues to increase its level of activity. Since the last report in Pacific Conservation Biology, among other actions, the Council has commented on the Commonwealth Governments "Native Title" legislation the "10 Point Plan" and made submissions on the proposed changes to Commonwealth Environment Legislation. Pierre Horwitz made a submission on behalf of the Council concerning the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement process. Each submission received a high level of media attention with national coverage on the ABC for the Council's views on native title and on proposed new biodiversity legislation.