The 2024 Tasmanian RFA Annual meeting of Officials took place in Hobart on 3 December 2024. The meeting was attended by officials from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; the Tasmanian Department of State Growth; and Forest Practices Authority Tasmania.
The meeting satisfies the requirements of clause 9A of the Tasmanian RFA to monitor the implementation of the Tasmanian RFA and to discuss any matters or issues that have arisen since the last meeting.
Officials were provided an update on progress made by the Tasmanian government in progressing a number of commitments arising from the 2024 state election with respect to Tasmania’s Forest Management System, including:
- Future Potential Production Forest (FPPF) Land
- Special species actions
- The processes for contracting plantation and native forest sawlog contracts from the public estate
- The On-Island Processing Program, and
- The Permanent Native Forest Estate Policy
The Commonwealth provided updates on work being undertaken to review the National Forest Policy Statement; develop the Timber Fibre Strategy; and implement the Australian Government’s Nature Positive Plan.
Officials considered an initial draft of the Independent Review of the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement 2017 – 2022. This discussion included a review of the processes undertaken to support the development of the public consultation process as well considerations of lessons learned to improve the process for the next review cycle.
Tasmanian officials provided an overview of the restructure of the FPA’s compliance and monitoring to enhance its capacity to undertake regulatory responsibilities across the investigations and annual auditing programs. Tasmania provided a high-level overview on the outcomes of compliance and monitoring activities under the Tasmanian forest practices system and Forest Practice Code for the 2024-25 financial year to date.
Officials also received an overview from Tasmania on the work undertaken on threatened species management, including listing changes since 2022. This was complemented by an update from the Commonwealth on threatened species listing changes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 between November 2023 to November 2024.