Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement

The Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) is specific to the south-west forest region of Western Australia. The agreement was signed by the Australian and Western Australian governments on 4 May 1999, establishing the framework for the sustainable management of the forests of the south-west region of Western Australia. On 29 March 2019 a 20 year rolling extension was formalised through the variation to the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement (WA RFA), with an extension until 4 May 2039. The extension followed an assessment process, public consultation and independent review.

The WA RFA variation includes two Annexures: Annexure 1 is the RFA marked up; Annexure 2 is a ‘clean’ version of the RFA as varied without the mark up.

Extending the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement

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

The governments also agreed to introduce a 20 year rolling life for the WA RFA, so at any point in time the WA RFA will be between 15 and 20 years from expiring, depending on the satisfactory completion of the five-yearly reviews.

Extending the WA 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 WA forests provide well into the future.

The extension was formalised on 29 March 2019 following extensive assessment, public consultation, independent review and negotiation.

What’s changed?

The extended WA RFA delivers a number of improvements:

• a 20-year extension to the 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 WA governments
• specific clauses referring to climate change and matters of national environmental significance in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth).

Importantly, the objectives of the WA 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 WA RFA is implemented through the Forest Management System in Western Australia: An Overview​ and based on the principles of ecologically sustainable forest management. The Forest Management System includes relevant forestry, environmental and heritage legislation, regulations, policies and programs.

Assessment of RFA matters

To inform the extension of the WA RFA, the Australian and WA governments undertook an assessment of how the various uses and values of the WA RFA have been monitored, maintained, implemented and addressed since the signing of the WA RFA.

Consultation

Stakeholders were engaged and given opportunities to provide feedback on the extension of the WA RFA:

• Comment was invited on the extension of the WA RFA as part of the third five-yearly review
• Stakeholders had an opportunity to provide feedback from 15 November 2016 to 13 January 2017
• Comment was also sought through the regional stakeholder engagement process from 17 to 19 October and on 7 November 2018.

Western Australian RFA five-yearly reviews

It is a requirement of the Western Australian RFA that its performance is reviewed every five years. The details of the Western Australian RFA review process is outlined in the agreement.

• Western Australian RFA: five and ten yearly review (combined)
• Western Australian RFA: third five-yearly review (2009-2014)

Annual meetings

On 29 June 2023, officials from the Australian and WA governments held their fourth annual meeting since the signing of the 20-year extension to the WA RFA.

At this meeting senior officials discussed updates and progress on a range of matters relating to changes to the WA Forest Management System that had occurred since the last annual meeting, including the implications of the WA Government’s decision to cease native forest harvesting on the future of the WA RFA. Following the meeting, officials issued a communique:

• WA RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2023 Communique

Communiques from previous annual meetings are also available:

• WA RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2022 Communique
• WA RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2021 Communique
• WA RFA Annual Meeting of Officials 2020 Communique

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

The 1999 WA RFA

The Australian and WA governments signed the original 1999 WA RFA on 4 May 1999. The agreement was for a duration of 20 years and was set to expire on 4 May 2019.

The Western Australian Land Tenure and Zoning Map (April 1999) (PDF 3.5 MB) identifies the extent of the comprehensive adequate and representative (CAR) reserve system in the south-west region of Western Australia.

Historical Publications

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