The purpose of the Regional Forest Agreement Outcomes report 5 yearly review is to facilitate the extension of the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). This is done by reporting against an agreed set of criteria as outlined in the Tasmanian RFA, demonstrating ecological sustainable forest management in Tasmania. These criteria demonstrate how Tasmania provides for maintenance of a balance of environmental, social and economic values of its forests.

The Outcomes Report, along with the State of the Forests Report 2022 data report and Tasmania’s Forest Management System: An Overview 2021 form a package that collectively satisfies the reporting requirements for the RFA 5-yearly review.

The Biodiversity Council views the existing national forest policy architecture as failing to protect biodiversity.

The use of a regulatory framework first developed in the 1990s by continual rolling extensions, is flawed. The latest independent review of the EPBC Act1 found that there are ‘fundamental shortcomings in the interactions between RFAs and the EPBC Act’. This necessitates wholesale reform of the approach to regulating forestry activities under RFAs.

Forestry operations should be suspended until Tasmania provides credible scientific evidence for the protection of Matters of National Environmental Significance and other environmental values which are potentially impacted.

We have four key concerns:

1. There is insufficient information to determine the risk to biodiversity from forestry
2. Monitoring is inadequate to understand population trends
3. There is little information on the types of vegetation that are reserved
4. The forest planning process lacks transparency

Please see the submission for full details.