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Evaluation of West RFA Consultation Paper Dear Friend, The Otway Ranges are currently being evaluated as part of the West Regional Forest Agreement (RFA). This agreement a joint initiative between the State and Federal Government will seal the fate of the Otway Forests for the next 20 years. It is of utmost importance that you, a concerned member of the public make a submission to the RFA to ensure that the public's voice is heard in a process that is already heavily weighted towards the timber industry. The release of the West RFA Consultation paper on 17/1/00 is the latest round in the RFA process and subsequent public consultation is crucial and possibly the last chance that the public will have a forum to make comment. Copies of the Consultation paper can be downloaded from http://www.rfa.gov.au . For those that prefer to read documents in hard copy the document is available from: Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 8 Nicholson St, EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 Submissions Process Submissions should be addressed to: Chair West Victoria RFA Independent Panel PO Box 502 EAST MELBOURNE VICTORIA 3002 The closing date for submissions is 25 February 2000. If you would like to participate in the public hearing process, preliminary submissions should be lodged by 18 February 2000. Hearings Public hearings will be held towards the end of the consultation period. Individuals or groups wishing to make presentations as part of the public hearings should ensure that their submissions are lodged with the Panel no later than 18 February 2000. The closing date for submissions is 25 February 2000. The following is a brief evaluation of the consultation paper to aid you in making submissions: We at OREN were disappointed and dismayed with the Consultation paper and the Draft Reserve system for the Otways that has been put forward. This paper represents little more than a DNRE submission to the West RFA and maintains a status quo that upholds the continuing destruction of the biodiversity, water and tourist values of the Otways forests, for the benefit of the Woodchipping industry. It is our opinion that there is a lack of real consideration given to the non-timber values of the Otway Forests. Before even attempting to make a submission it is important to note that the Consultation paper is missing a number of key documents that were not released on the 17/ 01/00. These documents can now be found on http://www.rfa.gov.au, they include the National Estate Report, The Social Report and the Minerals Report. While the following evaluation may seem technical in places, bear with us. And never forget that what you personally feel about the Otways is valid and as a member of the public you have the right to tell the government what you do and don’t want done to our public forests. Evaluation The timber industry in the Otways is woodchip driven and the RFA is merely a means to facilitate even greater levels of Otways forests available for the pulp and processing industry for the next 20 years. This very important point though disguised and hidden at the back of the document is made on page 2 in Chapter 4 "On completion of a West RFA, the Commonwealth will remove export controls on unprocessed native hardwood sources from the region". P2Ch4. "The issue of certainty of access to public hardwood resources is equally applicable to pulpwood (or residual log) processors". P2 Ch4 While the Government and Timber Industry have made much of the reduction of sawlogs in the Otways from current license commitments of 41,154 cubic meters per annum to 27,000 cubic meters per annum, this is nothing more than creative accounting on DNRE's part, as this does little more than bringing license allocations in line with what has been logged for several years. All this does is trim the fat off license commitments, which were never being met. The 27,000m3 is a cruel hoax. The sawmillers cannot use D grade logs anymore due to competition from the softwood industry, so the reduction in sawlog quota really represents a plan to woodchip D grade sawlogs. The reduction in sawlogs to 27,000 can allow woodchips volumes to increase to over 200,000m3 !!! This juggling of sawlog allocations is even more of a concern when we take into account that Sustainable Yield as defined in Victorian legislation will not be determined until the DNRE holds its next formal review well after the RFA is completed. We urge you in your submission to question why important woodchipping information is absent from this report, and we request a clear definition on what is a "sawlog driven" industry. We at OREN call for a "whole log " approach to be adopted in this RFA process. The Draft Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) Reserve System proposed for the Otways is anything but. We at OREN reject it outright for the following reasons. The RFA consultation paper in reality has very little new reserves, the reserves are almost exactly the same as the existing Forest Management Plan, museum pieces that fail to protect the natural values of the Otways and are designed to allow 'business as usual' logging rates to continue. The reserves are scattered, small and lineal, lack linkages and corridors and so fail to guarantee future biodiversity. It is a token reserve system that seems to indicate a Government strategy of adding dry, degraded forest areas to the reserve system, at the expense of the more profitable, tall Eucalypt, timber/woodchip production forest areas. Page 14 paragraph 2 of the Consultation paper admits that they have breached their own guidelines by not fully protecting 21 Ecological Vegetation Classes that should have received protection, but won't be protected because of "requirements for timber resources….firewood and other forest products". Do not be fooled by Map 2 (if you can decipher it at such a ridiculous scale) while full of pretty colors it is largely meaningless. The red, as already discussed is an inadequate reserve system, comprised largely of existing streamside buffers and areas of a gradient too steep to log. The yellow Special Management Zones (SMZ) basically come down to "we must think before we woodchip" the green General Management Zones (GMZ) mean "we don’t have to think before we woodchip". Likewise do not be fooled by "protection by prescription " as outlined on p12 of the document. Such mechanisms are not legally binding and are no substitute for formal reserves. Page 60 of the report admits that the proposed 168,000 hectares for addition to CAR reserves is not guaranteed at all. "The tenure of these areas (168,000ha) has not been determined. A consideration in determining the tenure of the reserve additions will be…the range of uses considered appropriate in each area"p60 Even the proposed reserves could be woodchipped and logged if such uses were "considered appropriate". In your submission demand a reserve system that adequately protects the Biodiversity of the Otways and the cessation of logging in Water Catchments. We have serious concerns for the conservation of the endangered Tiger Quoll or Spot-tailed Quoll under the proposed reserve system. While Table 3.4 summarizes conservation guidelines for the species, we at OREN have been unable to access crucial scientific data in relation to Tiger Quoll numbers and habitat areas in the region. Despite repeated requests DNREs response remains that this Quoll report has not been completed. We demand the release of this report before any significant decisions on habitat requirements for Tiger Quoll in the region is made. The RFA in its current format will not protect Domestic Water Catchments for Geelong and Warnambool, and may go further to lift the current moratorium upon logging water catchments in Apollo Bay. This is unacceptable we demand a closed catchment policy that protects domestic water catchment. Tell the Government that the future of our water supply depends upon the protection of the Otway Forests. In line with current departmental attitudes towards forest management very little consideration is given to non-timber forest values such as Tourism in the consultation paper. A small section on page 20 of Chapter 4 plays down the significance that the tourism industry has to the regional economy in the Otways. Important suggestions made to the RFA steering committee, by the public have not been included in this section and so we stress that your submission encourage the Government to seriously consider an extension of the Otway National Park and the Lorne Anglehook State Park to incorporate water catchments and important wildlife corridors as well as enhance the tourist potential of the area. We at OREN feel that an enquiry into the Tourism potential of the area is long overdue and would need to involve comprehensive landscape studies, and a real assessment of possible projects such as the Trans-Otway Walking Track and the extension of the national Parks System in the Otways. To date the RFA process has placed timber industry concerns above those of the public. We urge you not to allow this significant 20-year agreement to slip through without first hearing how the public feels about our forest in the Otways. Make a submission speak now in twenty years time it will be too late!!!

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