Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement

The Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) provides a framework for the sustainable management of Tasmania’s public and privately owned forests.

The Australian and Tasmanian governments signed the Tasmanian RFA on 8 November 1997. It was varied on 18 August 2017 to extend its life to 8 November 2037 and to establish an automatic extension mechanism, with subsequent five-yearly extensions contingent on satisfactory completion of five-yearly reviews.

For administrative purposes, a consolidated document has been produced that includes all variations to the original agreement to date, including the 2017 variation.

Extending the Tasmanian RFA in 2017

The Australian and Tasmanian governments have extended the Tasmanian RFA by 20 years as it has proven to be a strong and effective framework for the sustainable management of Tasmania’s forests.

The governments also agreed to introduce a rolling life for the Tasmanian RFA, which means it will be extended by five years if it is found to be successfully sustaining Tasmania’s forests at each of its five-yearly reviews. Please refer to this diagram (PDF [630 KB] for a high-level summary of the rolling extension process.

Extending the Tasmanian RFA gives long-term stability to protections for biodiversity and heritage, and surety of resource access for industry, ensuring the whole community can continue to enjoy the many benefits that Tasmanian forests provide well into the future.

The extension was formalised on 18 August 2017 following extensive assessment, public consultation, independent review and negotiation.

Extending the Tasmanian RFA in 2017: What’s changed?

The extended Tasmanian RFA delivers a number of improvements to the RFA framework:

• a 20-year extension to the current agreement
• rolling five-year extensions, subject to satisfactory performance and review
• a more outcomes focused five-yearly review process
• strengthened communication between the Australian and Tasmanian governments
• specific clauses referring to climate change and matters of national environmental significance in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) have been included.

Importantly, the objectives of the Tasmanian RFA have not changed. The comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system will continue, certainty of resource access and supply to industry will be maintained; as well as ecologically sustainable forest management for areas outside of reserves.

The Tasmanian RFA has been further streamlined by bringing any outstanding commitments from the 2005 Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement into the extended Regional Forest Agreement.

Extending the Tasmanian RFA in 2017: Consultation

The Australian and Tasmanian governments sought public submissions when reviewing and extending the Tasmanian RFA on two occasions (from 17 April to 12 June 2015, and from 22 November to 23 December 2016). This was to ensure all voices and needs were considered and represented in the balance of forest use.

Views, feedback and concerns from the public or interested stakeholders about forestry practices were listened to, considered seriously and addressed where needed. These have resulted in continual improvements to the Tasmanian RFA, the Tasmanian forest management system and associated policies and documents during the past 20 years.

For further information about the consultation process and the Tasmanian forest management system, visit the Tasmanian Government Department of State Growth’s website.

Assessment of values – an update to the Tasmanian Comprehensive Regional Assessment

To inform the extension of the Tasmanian RFA, the Australian and Tasmanian governments undertook a further assessment of forest-related environmental, social and economic values in Tasmania. This assessment provided an update to information in the Tasmanian Comprehensive Regional Assessment (CRA).

Tasmanian RFA five-yearly reviews

It is a requirement of the Tasmanian RFA that its performance is reviewed every five years by an independent reviewer.

Subject to the satisfactory completion of each five-yearly review, the Tasmanian RFA will now be automatically extended for a further five years. The automatic extension process will begin with the five-yearly review due to commence in 2022.

Further information on each of the Tasmanian RFA five-yearly reviews are available:

• Tasmanian RFA: First five-yearly review
• Tasmanian RFA: Second five-yearly review
• Tasmanian RFA: Third five-yearly review

Annual meetings

On 7 July 2022, officials from the Australian and Tasmanian governments held the 2022 Tasmanian RFA annual meeting.

At this meeting senior officials discussed the implementation of the Tasmanian RFA and issues that had arisen since the previous annual meeting on 21 July 2021, and issued a communique:

• Tasmanian RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2022 Communique

Communiques from previous annual meetings are also available:

• Tasmanian RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2021 Communique
• Tasmanian RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2020 Communique
• Tasmanian RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2019 Communique
• Tasmanian RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2018 Communique

These annual meetings, to be held in the years between five-yearly reviews, are part of the Australian and Tasmanian governments’ commitment to strengthened communications under the extended Tasmanian RFA.

The 1997 Tasmanian RFA

The Australian and Tasmanian governments signed the original 1997 Tasmanian RFA on 8 November 1997. The agreement was for a duration of 20 years and was set to expire on 8 November 2017.

Historical variations to the Tasmanian RFA

A variation to the Tasmanian RFA was signed on 19 July 2001 by the Australian and Tasmanian governments.

A Supplementary Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement was signed by the Australian and Tasmanian governments on 13 May 2005 as part of the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement (TCFA). The Supplementary RFA no longer exists as an administrative document, but all outstanding or ongoing commitments have been incorporated into the extended Tasmanian RFA.

An additional variation to the Tasmanian RFA was signed on 23 February 2007 by the Australian and Tasmanian governments.

Historical publications

Many historical publications informed the development of the Tasmanian RFA and continue to underpin the management of forests covered by the agreement.