1 April 2020
The Victorian Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) have been extended by the Australian and Victorian governments, providing certainty for the Victorian forestry industry.
The extension of the five RFAs until 20 June 2030 strikes a balance between the sustainable supply of wood, and protecting the biodiversity of our native forests.
This is important and timely certainty for the Victorian forestry industry which was devastated by the recent bushfires and deserted by the Victorian Government’s unilateral decision to end native forest harvesting.
The Victorian RFAs offer a modern approach to forest management through increased transparency, outcomes-focused reporting and reviews, and the inclusion of the role of Traditional Owners.
The Governments have made these improvements to the agreements to reflect changes in forest policy and process, and the feedback from the Victorian community, including 135 written submissions and 733 online survey responses.
Extending the RFAs for these five forestry regions of Victoria provides long-term surety of resource access for industry, ecologically sustainable management and use of forested areas and an extensive system of conservation reserves.
The updated RFAs will be available to the public on the department’s website next week. It is a statutory requirement that the RFAs are tabled in Parliament before being publicly released, this will occur in an out of session tabling in Parliament next week and the RFAs will be published immediately thereafter.
For more information on RFAs please visit: www.agriculture.gov.au/forestry/policies/rfa