South-East Queensland Forest Agreement (SEQFA)
The South-East Queensland Forest Agreement (SEQFA) was signed in 1999 and provides the timber industry with 25-year Sale Permits that guarantee resource supply, at pre-agreement levels for hardwood sawmills in South-East Queensland.
The permits provide, for the first time, a secure supply for sawmills that has resulted in industry confidence regarding future wood supplies, allowing companies to make significant investment and create jobs in regional and rural towns.
A major part of the agreement is the future transition for the hardwood industry from timber supplied from Crown native forests to a resource based on plantations and private forests. Under the agreement there is a 25-year period for this change to take place, and by 2025 there will be no logging of Crown native forests in South-East Queensland.
It is a unique agreement between parties that have generally taken opposing views, and being an agreement between the conservation movement, timber industry and the State Government, it represents the most secure forest agreement in the country.
Industry Outcomes
- only 3 out of 30 mills affected: Boral exited native hardwood industry in Queensland; one mill assisted to transit immediately to Hoop Pine plantation resource; Duaringa-Dingo Zone mill to exit by 2009;
- guaranteed resource supply to remaining mills for 25 years at pre-agreement levels (a 'first' in Australia);
- establishment of 5,000 ha of plantations to provide alternative supply to all mills receiving an allocation from public native forests;
- incentives for industry to move into value-added hardwood products and hardwood plantation timbers;
- the Government to facilitate and provide incentives for ecologically sustainable management of forests and timber resources on private land;
- a program of regional development to diversify the economic bases of regional communities;
Conservation Outcomes
- immediate addition of 425,000 hectares to the conservation reserve system;
- an additional 17% of State Forest & Timber Reserve placed in a 'last resort for logging' category (Schedule A) - industry encouraged to early transit to plantation to protect these forests;
- no logging of old growth or wilderness on public land and no clear felling;
- no export woodchip industry based on native forests and no additional harvesting of other forest or wood products;
- areas outside reserves logged once only with Code of Practice applied (habitat trees and recruits retained, stream buffers, etc);
- all logging of native forest on public land in South East Queensland to cease by 2024;
- a 2.2-fold increase in the area of native forest in conservation reserves from 357,000 hectares to 782,000 hectares on day one;
- reservation of 73% of native forest on public land rising to 100% over 25 years;
- reservation of most of the identified high-quality fauna habitat;
- full reservation of native forests in most 'icon areas' including Conondales, Mapleton, Bellthorpe, D'Aguilar Range, Tewantin, Ringtail, Yurol, Mothar Mountain, Helidon Hills, Kroombit Tops, Bulburin (Granite Creek), Eurimbula, Bania and Blackdown Tableland;
- large new reserves - D'Aguilar Range (37,000 ha), Bania (33,000 ha), Bulburin (28,000 ha), Boogooramunyah (23,000 ha) and Wrattens-Kandanga (22,000 ha);
- major increases in existing reserves - Conondales: 7000 ha to 34,000 ha, Kroombit Tops: 7300 ha to 34,300 ha, Main Range-Mt Barney area: 33,000 ha to 50,000 ha;
Community Outcomes
- Maintenance and enhancement of jobs in most rural centres;
- Long term employment and business stability to maintain the social fabric of regional communities;
- The only immediate mill closure in the fast-growing Sunshine Coast hinterland where the greatest alternative employment opportunities exist;
- Worker assistance to support any displaced mill workers to find new jobs.
Western Hardwoods Statewide Forest Process (SFP)
The Western Hardwoods Statewide Forests Process is modelled on the SEQFA, although it has had to face greater challenges in terms of resource availability.
In 2002 the Queensland Government committed to exclude logging from 1 million hectares of state forests in the Western Hardwoods region which supplied 14 local sawmills and 12 associated contractors.
The Western Hardwoods SFP has largely been completed with the State Government purchasing all but four sawmills in the region. These remaining sawmills will have 20 year supply agreements with a view to transitioning this supply to plantation hardwood. The Government has increased their commitment to plantations, and will now establish a total of 20,000 hectares of hardwood plantation as a replacement resource for the crown native hardwoods in SEQ and the Western Hardwoods region.
Cypress Statewide Forest Process (SFP)
The Cypress Statewide Forest Process has recently commenced with the timber industry, conservation movement and the State Government in the process of developing an outcome that will deliver conservation gains and certainty to the cypress industry.
Industry is seeking an outcome that will not result in significant mill closures.