Background

Implications

Regional aspects

Assessing and measuring the current situation

Indicators

Management responses

Discussion

Future directions

Background

This Issue Report describes those processes involving the extraction or harvesting of wood and timber products from native forests. Products harvested from native forests include timber, woodchips, and craftwood. More detailed assessments of forestry activities are available through the RFA Five Yearly Review Background Report (Forest Practices Board 2002), Forest Practices Board Annual Reports, and State of the Forests Reports prepared by Forestry Tasmania and the Forest Practices Board. There are other economic products harvested from forests such as honey and seed and production information is provided on these activities. Firewood is reviewed separately (see Firewood Collection and Usage Issue Report).

Land converted from native forests to plantations, to agricultural land, to urban development, or any other land use is not strictly a product harvested from native forest and is discussed in further detail in the Land Clearance Issue Report. Land clearance is defined to include the removal of native forest and non-forest native vegetation communities where a substantial and, generally, irreversible change in land cover occurs. Examples would include the clearance of land because of inundation through dams, urban development, improved pasture, cropping, and plantation development.

Native forests consist of tree and understorey species that are native to Tasmania. They include mature (includes old-growth), regrowth and regeneration forest (Forestry Tasmania 2001). Elements of native forest also include sclerophyll/eucalypt forest and forest that may not have a direct commercial forest harvesting interest such as, non-eucalypt forest and grassy woodlands.

Native forests do not include plantations even though the species planted (such as blue gum Eucalyptus globulus) may be native. Native forests are complex and diverse ecosystems comprising communities of species, fungi, insects and fauna and the inter relationships between them. The RFA classifies 50 individual forest communities.

The Tasmanian community today values native forests both for their ieconomic and intrinsic value. Environmental economists describe the 'option value' of a resource where commercial benefits are realised through retaining a resource in an original state. A mature native forest with a mixture of age classes of forest species ranks highly from many perspectives: its biodiversity values, its intrinsic worth to the community, tourism potential, and the commercial returns that it may potentially realise from harvesting.

The statistics and indicators contained in this SoE Report are clearly inadequate in portraying the intrinsic worth of forests. These values are better portrayed through such sources as photographs and writing. The French explorer Bruny D'Entrecasteaux, during his exploration of Tasmania 1792, wrote the following of Recherche Bay in south-eastern Tasmania (Hogg 1937):

At each step here the beauties of that nature abandoned to herself, there the marks of her decay, trees of an immense height and proportionate diameter, their branchless trunks covered with evergreen foliage, some looking as old as the world; closely interlacing in an almost impenetrable forest, they served to support others which, crumbling with age, fertilised the soil with their debris; nature in all her vigour, and yet in a state of decay, seems to offer to the imagination something more picturesque and more imposing than the sight of this same nature bedecked by the hand of civilised man. Wishing only to preserve her beauties we destroy her charm, we rob her of that power which is hers alone, the secret of preserving in eternal age eternal youth.

Harvesting methods

The choice of harvesting methods is related to the type and age of forest, and site characteristics in order to maximise forest growth, regeneration success, and minimise on and off-site impacts. The methods include:

1. Thinning: harvesting of some trees to maximise timber growth on retained stems.
    
2. Selective/partial logging: felling and removing part of the forest, usually more mature trees of sawlog size.
    
3. Clearfelling: all or nearly all of the trees within an area are cut down. Generally employed in wet sclerophyll forests.
    
4. Cable harvesting: a hauling system using towers, winches, blocks and cables to extract harvested timber from the forest (Forest Practices Board 2000)
    

Post harvesting

The choice of post harvesting methods is also related to the type of forest and site characteristics in order to maximise regeneration success and minimise on-and off- site impacts. The methods include:

1. Regeneration burning followed by sowing with local seed: A high intensity burn following harvesting creates an ash bed for seed and removes material remaining after harvesting. The burns are generally more intense and less patchy than wildfires. The harvested area is allowed to regenerate naturally or seed is aerially sown. Research undertaken at the Warra LTER is identifying methods to improve the rate and extent of recovery of biodiversity values through, for example, retention of coarse woody-debris.
    
2. Selective harvesting and regeneration: Various silvicultural techniques are employed following selective harvesting. These include low intensity burning, ground disturbance to promote seeding, and pruning of remaining trees. The silvicultural systems trial at Warra is investigating the potential of partial logging with a cool regeneration burn as an alternative treatment to clearfelling with a hot regeneration burn for use in sensitive areas. As part of this work an examination of the comparative impact of these two treatments on selected species is being undertaken. The study is attempting to determine to what extent partial logging provides a more 'biodiversity friendly' method of logging. (Bashford and Taylor 1998)
    
3. Conversion or clearance to plantations, pasture, or other land uses: State Forest is required under the Forestry Act 1920 to remain under forest cover whether as multiple-use forests or plantations. On private land in a declared Private Timber Reserves there is a similar requirement. While there are no statutory prescriptions as to the proportion of land to be regenerated to native forests, in accordance with attachment 9 of the RFA the State is required to maintain and report against the Permanent Forest Estate policy. The policy prescribes that the area of native forest to be retained above minimum thresholds.
    

Regeneration success

Regeneration success is one of the indicators of Sustainable Forests for Tasmania (Forest Practices Board 2002). There are a number of factors that may influence regeneration success in Tasmanian native forests and these are reviewed in more detail in the RFA Review Background Report. Factors may include pests and diseases and browsing by native animals. Some species of browsing animal have benefited from current agricultural and forestry activities with the result that they are present in large numbers in some parts of Tasmania. These include native species such as brushtail possum, Bennett's wallaby and Tasmanian pademelon. To protect seedlings methods of browsing animal control are employed including 1080 poison, fencing and shooting. Further detail is provided in the Native Fauna Harvesting Issue Report.

Implications

Describing the social, economic and environmental implications of native forest harvesting in Tasmania is complex and, especially in a brief summary, prone to errors of omission. Issues include how society values 'intrinsic' worth (the non-market value of forests); what monitoring is undertaken to assess and understand 'downstream' consequences; what value is placed on short-term versus long-term; and, what accounting practices are used to assess 'natural capital'. Increasingly, triple bottom-line accounting is being applied to better assess social, economic and environmental issues in a more integrated way.

At a national level, the ABS is developing physical environmental accounts for Australia's forest stocks. This provides measures of forest stocks, flows of wood and wood products through the economy, releases of emissions and wastes, carbon storage, and recycling. Stock tables show opening and closing forest stocks for each year. Details are given for changes in stock volumes due to human intervention (harvesting, burn-offs, regeneration and new plantations), disasters, and definitional and legal changes. Flow tables show consumption and conversion of forest products in an input-output framework.

The implications of native forest harvesting also include the role of forests in storing and sequestering carbon, which globally has been suggested as one of the strategies that may help to off-set or delay climate change (see Enhanced Greenhouse Effect Issue Report. The Carbon Accounting System of the AGO has programs to monitor vegetation change and soil carbon at national scales.

Economic

Tasmania's economy is heavily dependent on its natural resources, particularly its native forests. Wood and paper products manufacturing accounts for approximately 2% of total employment in Tasmania (ABS 2001). Forestry activity falls into the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification category of 'wood and paper product manufacturing'.

Compared with the other eight industry sub-divisions in Tasmania, forestry is (ABS 2000):

• the second largest employer, with 3,440 individuals employed;
   
• the second highest wage and salary contributor, paying $154 million;
   
• the second largest in terms of industry turnover at $1.19 billion; and
   
• the second highest value-adding industry sector at $429 million.
   

Approximately 2,000 people are directly employed in the forest industry with another 4,000 employed in downstream processing (DSD 1999).

Social

For much of Tasmania's history the manner and extent of harvesting of native forests has created a great deal of conflict and controversy within the community. This is not a recent circumstance: for instance, in 1878 a Parliamentary Select Committee was set up to 'enquire into and report upon the necessary steps to be taken for the Preservation from utter destruction of the valuable indigenous Forest Trees known as the Huon Pine and Blackwood'.

Over this time, there have been numerous reports and inquiries in an attempt to reach a balance between reservation and harvesting. Within the last thirty years these have included:

• The Everett/Gentle Inquiry 1977
• Tasmanian Wood Skills Resource Investigation, Ronald Sinclair, commissioned by the Tasmanian Government 1978
• Lemonthyme and Southern Forests Commission of Inquiry, Helmsham Inquiry 1988
• Forests and Forest Industry Strategy, Forests and Forest Industry Council of Tasmania, 1990
• National Forest Policy Statement, 1992
• Tasmania Regional Forest Agreement, Public Land Use Commission 1996
• Tasmania Together 2001.

Environment

Tasmania's ecosystems are largely unique with only one of its eight IBRA regions shared with other States. Tasmania has a high diversity of vascular plants with over 1,600 species of vascular plants of which 20% are endemic. Tasmania's forests are highly representative of Gondwanan flora. Two commercially important tree species Huon Pine (Lagastrolobus franklinii) and Swamp Gum (Eucalyptus regnans) are the second oldest and second tallest recorded (respectively) species on the planet (Griffin 1999)

Harvesting methods and post harvesting operations have greatly differing effects upon biodiversity. Typically, selective harvesting techniques have the least impact with clearfell the greatest. In an attempt to facilitate the understanding of ecological processes and biodiversity functions of Tasmania's wet forests, Forestry Tasmania initiated the establishment of the Warra Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site . In this initiative they were joined at early stages in this long-term project by the Bureau of Rural Sciences, DPIWE, CSIRO, the University of Tasmania and the Forests and Forest Industry Council. These forests are part of the southern cool temperate wet forest biome. The site contains both working forests and conservation reserves. Appropriate management prescriptions and practices prevail in the different parts of the site. The goal of research at Warra is to describe the ecology of the cool temperate wet forest (Eucalyptus obliqua) ecosystem by fostering multi-disciplinary research within a long-term framework. The site provides infrastructure and background information for researchers combined with relative ease of access and relative surety of long-term maintenance.

Regional aspects

Bioregional summary of forest land uses and conservation (% area of region)

Bioregion	Forestry plantations	Forestry - native forests native forest on public land	Native forest outside public land	Conservation
King	0.1	27.1	5.2	11.7
Central Highlands	0.6	11.8	16.5	43.3
Northern Midlands	0.1	2.3	17.5	0.3
Northern Slopes	6.4	34.1	11.2	3.5
South–East	0.2	16.6	27.5	5.0
Southern Ranges	2.6	39.0	7.5	34.6
West	0.1	16.2	0.2	63.0
Flinders	0.7	10.2	8.0	10.2
Ben Lomond	5.3	50.3	15.8	4.4

Source: Gouldthorpe and Gilfedder 2002

Assessing and measuring the current situation

This SoE Report presents a selection of harvesting of native forest indicators. Further detail is available in Forest Practices Board Annual Report (Forest Practices Board 2001), State of the Forests Report, and the RFA Five Yearly Review Reports (Forest Practices Board 2002). Information on forest clearance, which includes the harvesting of native forest with subsequent conversion to plantation, is contained in Land Clearance. The indicators selected are based on the Core Environmental Indicators for Australia (ANZECC 2000) and Sustainable Forests Indicators (Forest Practices Board 2002).

Indicators

Products Harvested from Native forests - at a glance

• Continued in depth

• Tasmanian forests are highly productive in terms of wood production. In 1999 they produced 70% of Australia's decorative veneers, as well as 50% of Australian produced printing & writing paper and 57% of newsprint production.
   
• Other products harvested from Tasmania's native forests include: firewood, raw seed, nectar, honey, cut flowers, treeferns, and sphagnum moss.
   
• Harvesting statistics for 2000-01 include: 468,500 m³ of native eucalypt sawlogs; 27,400 m³ of other native sawlogs; 1,712 kilograms of raw seed.
   
• The most currently available statistics for pulpwood production were for 1999-00 when 4,735,000 tonnes of pulpwood was harvested from native forests.
   
• Between 1996-00, the volume of woodchips harvested from native forest increased by 73%.
   
• Annual honey production remained relatively constant at 1,000 tonnes.
   

Extent and Condition of Native Vegetation (forest Vegetation Communities) - at a glance

• Continued in depth

• This indicator is still in preparation as it relies on the completion of the pre-European vegetation map of Tasmania.
   
• There is only limited 'condition' information available on Tasmanian vegetation although a methodology for recording condition has been established in vegetation mapping for the Tamar region and south-eastern Tasmania.
   
• Through criterion 3 of the Sustainability Indicators for Tasmanian Forests (Forest Practices Board 2002), information is available on the area and percentage of forest affected by processes or agents that may change ecosystem health and vitality. Significant health problems reported in native forest areas during 2000-01 were: mortality of eucalypts through drought; high-altitude eucalypt forests in central Tasmania have been suffering progressive crown decline over the past few years; Myrtle wilt is the most significant disease of Nothofagus cunninghamii (Myrtle); root rot caused by the introduced soil-borne fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi; unplanned wildfire in fire-sensitive forest communities.
   

Area of Native forest Available for Timber Production - at a glance

• Continued in depth

• The area of native forest potentially available for harvesting on public land compared to private land is similar (about 857,900 ha on private land and 833,200 on State Forest). However, once non-eucalypt forests are included, the area of forest available on public land increases to 1,053,800 ha compared with 912,700 on private land.
   
• Approximately 2 million hectares of native forest is potentially available for harvesting. The likelihood of these areas being harvested is dependent upon a number of different factors including the Forest Practices Code, Local Government planning schemes, the economic viability of the harvesting operation, the products being extracted and other more intrinsic values placed upon the native forest.
   
• Sub-alpine eucalypt forests and non-eucalypt forests are well-reserved with 59% and 71%, respectively, located in conservation reserves on public land. Of the commercial valuable forest types (wet and dry eucalypt forest) 27% is reserved.
   
• The area of land covered by Private Timber Reserves has increased by approximately 163% since 1995-96.
   

Area of Native forest Harvested - at a glance

• Continued in depth

An analysis of the figures shows that

• Between 1999-2002 (3 years) a total of 109,200 ha of native forest was harvested.
   
• 56% or 61,100ha of this harvesting occurred on private land.
   
• The harvesting methods employed on State Forest differed markedly from that on private land. This is perhaps explained by distribution of forest types on private land compared to State forest (70% of forest on private land is classified as dry sclerophyll compared to 33% on State Forest see Area of Native forest Available for Timber Production). Clearfelling was the preferred harvesting method on State Forest accounting for 60% of harvesting operations compared to 37% for private land.
   
• The total area harvested per year varied by 10,000ha or approximately 20% during the period.
   

Threatened Ecological Communities - at a glance

• Continued in depth

• The Scientific Advisory Group for the Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative Forest Reserve Program (CARSAG) identified 200 forest components of the 50 RFA forest communities as being priorities for conservation.
   
• The 1997 Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) recognised threatened forest communities in Tasmania. Of the 50 RFA forest communities that the RFA process identified, 18 were classified as threatened (endangered, vulnerable or rare) at the State level.
   

Terrestrial Protected Areas - at a glance

• Continued in depth

• Tasmania is committed to establishing a comprehensive, adequate and representative (CAR) reserve system. The CAR reserve system under the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement has an objective of reserving at least 15% of all forest types which existed in 1750.
   
• Of the commercially valuable forest types (dry and wet eucalypt forest) approximately 27% is contained within conservation reserves.
   
• Seven forest communities have less than 15% of their current extent in reserves: six are dry eucalypt communities and one a wet eucalypt community. For all these communities, the majority of the remaining extent is on unreserved private land.
   
• 10 communities, mainly from the dry eucalypt group, have less than 7.5% of their estimated pre-1750 extent protected in reserves. For most of these communities, the remaining extent is chiefly on private land.
   
• Approximately 33% of Tasmania's existing native forest estate as at June 2001 was within conservation reserves on crown land or within private CAR reserves.
   
• 31,629 ha of native forest on private land was approved for inclusion in the Private Forests Reserve Program as at November 2002. However, less than 0.5% of native forest on private land is within a Private CAR Reserve.
   

Management responses

Harvesting of Tasmania's native forests is managed under the forest practices system. Tasmania's forest practices system is primarily delivered under self-regulatory processes backed up by independent monitoring and enforcement by the Forest Practices Board.

• All operations involving, harvesting, roading, quarrying and reforestation must be covered by a Forest Practices Plan.
   
• Forest Practices Officers are employed by forestry organisations to plan and supervise their operations. Forest Practices Officers are appointed by the Board and have responsibilities and powers under the Forest Practices Act 1985 to ensure that their operations comply with the Forest Practices Code.
   
• The Forest Practices Board conducts independent audits of operations and forest practices plans and the results are published in the Board's Annual Report.
   
• The Board investigates complaints and alleged breaches of the Act and can impose penalties and take legal action where necessary to ensure compliance.
   
• Forest Practices Plans (FPP) must be prepared in accordance with the Forest Practices Code and must contain site-specific prescriptions as to how the planned operations will be conducted. The plans must include details on the location of roads, planned harvesting system, reforestation provisions and stocking standards, and measures for the protection of soils, water and other natural and cultural values.
   
• The applicant for a FPP must lodge a Certificate of Compliance prepared by a Forest Practices Officer upon the completion of a FPP. The intent of this requirement is to ensure that all operations are inspected by a Forest Practices Officer during and at the completion of operations to establish whether the plan was fully complied with.
   
• Forest Practices Plans are accredited under the Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.
   

Forest Practices Code

The Forest Practices Code prescribes the manner in which forest operations are to be planned and conducted. The Code deals with:

• The establishment and maintenance of forests, including standards to be complied with in the stocking or restocking of land with trees
   
• The harvesting of timber
   
• The construction of roads and other works (including quarries) connected with the establishment of forests or the growing of timber.
   

The Code provides guidelines for the conservation of natural and cultural values such as:

• Flora and fauna, including threatened species
   
• Soils and water
   
• Geomorphology
   
• Cultural heritage
   
• Visual landscape.
   

Tasmania's Forest Practices Code was first published in 1987 and revised in 1993. The Code has undergone recent revision and a new Code was launched on 24th November 2000.

Discussion

In accordance with attachment 9 of the Regional Forest Agreement the State is required to maintain and report against the Permanent Forest Estate policy. The policy prescribes that the area of native forest will be retained above minimum thresholds, expressed as a percentage of the native forest estate assessed in 1996 under the Regional Forest Agreement. Since 1997 these thresholds have been:

• Statewide level: 80% of the native forest estate to be maintained
   
• Bioregional level: Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA 4)

  Current proportion of native forests in reserves	Proportion of native forest to be maintained
  0-30%	>80%
  30-60%	>60%
  >60%	Current reserve area

  
   
• Forest communities: at least 50% of the current area in each bioregion to be maintained.
   

Between 1 July 1997 to 30 June 2001 permanent forest estate was reduced by 62,831 ha as a result of Forest Practices Plans. The data does not include figures for clearing that is not subject to regulation under the Forest Practices Act 1985

Section 4C of the Forest Practices Act 1985 requires the Forest Practices Board to monitor and report annually on harvesting and reforestation activity in relation to the maintenance of a Permanent Forest Estate. The current native forest area is in excess of the Permanent Forest Estate policy within all bioregions. However, the levels of conversion of some forest communities are approaching thresholds. No refusal of applications for conversion of native forest communities has yet occurred or been required.

Future directions

Tasmania Together and the RMPS

Relevant Tasmania Together goals and standards for 'Biodiversity' are listed in the linked file. The Tasmania Together Progress Board reported on progress toward targets for benchmarks set (Tasmania Together Progress Board 2003). Indicators, targets and baseline data are available in the latest Progress Report June 2003. Further information, including progress report updates, is available from Tasmania Together.

Involvement of the community, and the fair and orderly use of resources are also fundamental principles of the RMPS. The RMPS objectives have been developed to advance the principles of sustainable development.