RSOS Government Processes - Reports

The following is a review of reports generated by government processes to identify and protect Otway Rainforest.

1987 State Conservation Strategy (1987) . States that:

The Government will complete surveys of all sites or areas of ecological or scientific significance in the State and will take protective measures where appropriate. As a general rule, those sites significant at the State level or above will be preserved for nature conservation purposes and sites of regional or local significance will be protected wherever possible.

1988 Land Conservation Council East Gippsland Areas Review.

The Council will be conducting an investigation of rainforests in Victoria with a view to making recommendations on the range of uses for them and the way in which they should be protected through reservation.

1989 Code of Forest Practices for Timber Production provides prescriptions that exclude logging from pure stands of rainforest and proved 20 to 40 metre buffers.

1990 March, David Cameron Timber harvesting within Sites of Significance for rainforest. Flora and Fauna Survey Group, CFL , unpublished internal memorandum (86/737, 89/794) nominated 10 proposed RSOS for the Otways. Memo provided advice that no logging should take place in any RSOS. (Unpublished).

1990 Parkes, Guidelines for the assessment of biological significance in Victoria. Flora Branch, (Link) provided methodology for creation of RSOS. Report recognised that each RSOS should include a core rainforest area containing the highest conservation value and management surrounding this core area must be sympathetic to the protection of the core rainforest. (unpublished internal report.)

1992 March. Cool Temperate Rainforest is listed as a threatened in community under the Flora and Faun Guarantee Act 1988. (No Action Statement yet completed.)

1992 June. Otway Forest Management Plan (OFMP) acknowledges 10 RSOS and the Cameron (1990)Memo of Understanding. OFMP only protects only small representative areas within some RSOS and does not provide a map of the RSOS areas nominated by Cameron. OFMP will be reviewed every 10 years.

1993 Prescriptions governing timber harvesting and related forestry activities within sites of biological significance for rainforest (Special Management Areas). Flora Branch, Conservation Forests Lands (Link) provide recommendations for management in RSOS. Recommendations argue that the best protection for RSOS is exclusion of all logging. (unpublished internal report.)

1994 Survey and monitoring of myrtle wilt within cool temperate rainforest in Victoria draft report shows that the disease is at epidemic levels in the Otways and indicates that logging practices may be having a large impact. Recommends research to determine if logging is having an impact. (Unpublished draft report).

1995 Sept. Mark Burgman report, recommended sub-catchment protection for National RSOS. Other areas should have 60 metre buffers etc. to protect against myrtle wilt. Buffers to be regarded as an interim minimum distance. Provides advice that Foresters can expect sustainable yield to decrease when government decides how much RSOS should be placed in reserves and appropriate buffers. Requires the Forest Management Plans to provide detailed prescriptions on how to protect RSOS. Recommended public access to information relating RSOS.

1995 Sept. CSIRO Interim Review of the Code of Forest Practices for Timber Production mirrored Mark Burgman recommendations for sub-catchment protection for National RSOS with other areas having a 60 metre buffers to protect against myrtle wilt. Buffers to be regarded as an interim minimum distance.

1996 July. Survey and monitoring of myrtle wilt within cool temperate rainforest in Victoria report released after FOI request by conservation groups. References to logging as a problem have been watered down and recommendations for further research into the impacts of logging are deleted.

1996 Nov. CSIRO Final review of Code of Forest Practices for Timber Production makes special mention of the myrtle wilt problem (Page 10) and stresses that prescriptions recommended in the 1995 CSIRO interim review are to regarded as an interim minimum distance.

1996 Nov. Revised Code of Forest Practice for Timber Production incorporates Mark Burgmans 1995 recommendations. However the CSIRO recommendation that buffers are to be regarded as an interim minimum distance is not included. Code requires the OFMP to provide a detailed strategy to deal with the regional characteristics of Otway rainforest.

July 1997. Nomination submitted for Human activity which results in artificially elevated or epidemic levels of Myrtle Wilt within Nothofagus-dominated Cool Temperate Rainforest as a threatening process within the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. (Takes over three years to be listed in the Act).

1998? Land Conservation Council abolished by Kennett government. No public process is planned to finish off the processes of identifying and protecting RSOS in Victoria.

Jan 1999 Rainforsets and Cool Temperate forests of Victoria (Peel) provides peer review of Camerons 1990 proposed RSOS for all of Victoria. Finds only one change for the Otways which is an upgrade. However a typo in Appendix 8 down grades Aire-Youngs Creek RSOS from National to State. This error us used by Forestry Victoria to ignore sub-catchment protection for National RSOS required by the 1996 Code of Forest Practices.

March 2000, West RFA signed but makes no detailed mention of rainforest issues. RFA delegates all responsibility for rainforest management back to the Forest Management Plans. Section 67 West RFA requires the State Government to update the OFMP by 2005. No reduction in sawlog yield due to Aire-Youngs Creek[Link] National RSOS.

Dec. 2000. Human activity which results in artificially elevated or epidemic levels of Myrtle Wilt within Nothofagus-dominated Cool Temperate Rainforest listed as a threatening process in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. (Action Statement not yet completed).

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