Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement
On 13 May 2005, Prime Minister John Howard and Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon signed the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement (TCFA) as a supplement to the RFA. Under the TCFA 148,000 ha of forest on public land was added to reserves, protection of oldgrowth forest increased to more than a million hectares, reserves in the Tarkine region were extended to 308,000 hectares and formal reserves in the Styx Valley were significantly increased. The TCFA also targeted another 45,600 hectares of private forest for conservation.
This was the most recent addition in a massive expansion in conservation reserves. In 1981, less than 600,000 hectares or 8.5% of Tasmania was reserved. With the Franklin dam and Helsham decisions and then the Forests and Forest Industry Strategy and the Recommended Areas for Protection program, over 1.6M hectares or 24% of Tasmania was placed in reserves by 1992.
We now have over 3.03M hectares or 44% of Tasmania securely protected in conservation reserves.
There is a further 2% of State forest land that is not suitable or is unavailable for forest production, that is, it lies outside wood production coupes.
On those lands where forestry is undertaken, systems are in place to deliver off-reserve conservation for flora and fauna and habitat protection especially where it is considered these may be endangered. There is only about 1,489,000 hectares of public land in Tasmania administered for ‘multiple use’ forest production. Of this 15% is contained in forest reserves, 13% is in other protection zones of one form or another, and 24% as mentioned above, lies outside coupes, leaving 51% of the approximately 1.5M hectares available for public multiple use and production forestry. Harvesting is managed sustainably and only a small proportion of the area is harvested and replanted each year.
The three major reservation criteria defined by JANIS were forest communities, oldgrowth, and wilderness. Reservation targets were set for each.