PRINCIPLES
1. Victoria's forests must be managed in accordance with the principles of intergenerational equity, the precautionary principle, biodiversity conservation and respect for the traditional ownership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
2. Victoria's public native forests have inestimable value for climate management, water supply and biodiversity, and as places for recreation and appreciation. They should be protected and managed primarily for these purposes.
3. Ecological principles and scientifically robust information should guide forest management.
4. Investment in forest protection, restoration and management should be increased substantially, as part of a broader commitment to reversing the species extinction crisis and expanding jobs and economies in regional Victoria.
5. Only plantation grown wood can be classified as renewable.
6. Achievement of best practice plantation management throughout Victoria to minimize adverse impacts on local communities and local biodiversity, air, soil and water quality.
7. Forest plantations can be used to meet our entire domestic and export markets and to produce a range of value-added products.
8. Native forest on private land must be protected
9. The carbon value of ending logging and protecting our forests should benefit the climate, not be traded away
10. Logging and other major forest disturbances increase the risk and intensity of bushfires.
AIMS
1. A wood-production industry plan that will complete the transition from native forests to existing plantations, including appropriate transition arrangements (maximum 5 years) to the use of plantation and recycled timbers only, and re-training and other assistance for workers and affected communities.
2. Prioritise, as part of a transition to solely plantation-sourced timber:
a. an end to all timber extraction in native forests;
b. a blanket ban on the use of wood for generating electricity;
c. An end to the export of woodchips and whole logs from native forests; and
d. Ending logging in high-conservation value forests and town water catchments;
3. Reform of Victorian government departments and agencies to ensure greater focus on protecting Victoria’s natural assets.
4. Carbon stored in native forests and other natural ecosystems to be fully included in greenhouse accounts, and for policies that will maintain and restore natural ecosystems to their long term carbon capture and carrying capacity as a major carbon pollution mitigation strategy, while not allowing existing forests to be used as carbon offsets.
5. Allowing regrowth forest to mature to reduce bushfire risk and maximise biodiversity, carbon uptake and water yield.
6. The management of re-growth forest to an old growth state to maximise biodiversity, carbon uptake and water yield, which are more valuable outcomes than logging.
7. Funding of independent detailed research into the effects of fire, including planned burns, on ecosystems
8. To ensure prescribed burns focus primarily on protecting people and assets and be driven by science, not politics. Hectare-based guidelines at either the state or regional level are inappropriate.
9. The revegetation of land (including salt-affected land) with diverse native vegetation which can store carbon, help manage water and restore local biodiversity.
10. Promote a range of Victoria’s alpine and other types of forests for World Heritage listing, as well as recognition of the Central Highlands Mountain Ash Forests as a critically endangered ecosystem.
11. The development of sustainable alternative fibre industries.
12. A sustainable and productive wood products industry on public and private land that maintains or enhances the resilience of natural ecosystems and that creates long-term skilled jobs and social sustainability in regional communities.
13. Forestry plantations which are:
a. responsibly managed, and certified as such by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
b. moderate in scale
c. species-diverse
d. only cultivated on land that has already been cleared.
14. World’s best practice, FSC-certified, farm-scale species-diverse plantation forestry, including a ban on genetically modified tree species.
15. To ensure forest certification schemes are rigorously defined to prevent ‘greenwash’.
16. More effective enforcement of bans on the sale of illegally logged wood products both imported and domestic, and FSC chain of custody documentation requirements.
17. To restrict timber-getting from state forests to domestic collection of firewood for personal purposes only (not resale), which is regulated to operate within strict ecological limits.
18. To ensure that remaining small-scale and localised timber-getting operates within strict ecological limits.
19. Support for creation of high value products (eg. furniture) to occur in addition to production of lower value commodities (wood chips, palings, sleepers and fence posts, etc.)
20. An end to MIS schemes for timber and oppose tax-driven carbon plantations.
21. Resourcing local government so that it can effectively implement native vegetation removal laws, and to provide oversight of local councils with a properly resourced and qualified regulator.
22. Agroforestry requires robust regulation to significantly reduce impacts on native vegetation and wildlife during harvesting.
23. Abolish the 1996 Wood Pulp Agreement, which accelerates the destruction of native forests for commercial interests.
24. Government agencies must not engage in commercial sales of timber cleared in the course of fire risk management.
25. Fire management authorities must:
a. ensure transparency in their work
b. assess and protect habitat values and rare species
c. assess smoke pollution impacts on communities
d. account for losses of stored carbon
e. carry out pre- and post-burn monitoring
f. base all modelling and planning on sound scientific evidence.
26. Areas of failed regeneration must be repaired and enabled to become natural forest again. Restoration must not become an excuse for de facto plantation establishment.
Forests Policy as amended by the membership on 23 June 2024