The Eden Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) completed today secures the future of an innovative and robust timber industry in the region.
Eden is the first of four regions in NSW to be covered by a Regional Forest Agreement between the Commonwealth and State governments.
The RFA delivers 20 years’ certainty in the use and management of the region’s native forests, ending decades of insecurity for timber families.
With the resource security the agreement provides, the $65 million native hardwood industry in the region can attract new investment in value adding facilities, explore new markets and create new jobs.
These will flow from a range of industry initiatives including the establishment of a new ‘recovery’ sawmill which is expected to employ up to 44 people when it opens in mid-2000. Expansion of commercial thinning of regrowth forest will create 5 new permanent jobs, with other forest management activities creating additional opportunities.
In keeping with the national objectives of the RFA process, the Eden Agreement will result in a higher level of value-adding of the region’s timber in particular through the recovery mill and the tendering of speciality sawlogs and craft wood.
At the same time, this is a balanced result that also delivers for conservation values by establishing a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) Reserve System protecting forest biodiversity, old-growth and wilderness values.
With 255,300 hectares of the region now in dedicated reserves and more than 12,000 hectares in informal and other reserves, the CAR Reserve System now covers approximately one third of the entire region – more than half the region’s public land.
I thank the many organisations and individuals throughout the region who have contributed to the development of the Eden RFA, including the Regional Forest Forum, which provided an essential link between governments and the community.
The Eden RFA will be followed by agreements between the Commonwealth and State Governments for the Upper and Lower North East regions of the State, and the Southern region. All are scheduled for completion by the end of 1999.
26 August 1999