| |
Specific recommendations
to ensure that logging is sawlog-driven
- In line with the
Auditor General’s recommendations, the Victorian
State Government should immediately provide a clear definition of the
‘sawlog-driven’ concept in state forests;
- The volume of
Residual (woodchip) logs being taken from the Otway state forest must
be immediately reduced to comply with the limits
set in the Otway Forest Management Plan (OFMP). The current limit
is 60,000m3 per annum, but the 33%
reduction in sustainable sawlog yield inforced by the Regional Forest
Agreement means that the woodchip limit must also be reduced by
33%, to 40,000m3 per annum. The current production level
is almost 100,000m3 per annum and breaches
the OFMP.
- In line with the
1982 Task Force recommendations, no logging
should occur in sawlog-uneconomic forest
- State Government
charges should be restructured to ensure that logging operations are
financed predominantly by the sawlog industry
- Sawlog licences
should only be issued, or maintained, if sawmills demonstrate that their
operations are clearly sawlog-driven, and value-adding. Mills
that rely on the sale of sawlog offcuts (for woodchips), or other
low value-added products, to achieve financial viability should not
have access to hardwood logs from public forests
|
|
