On Wednesday, the Federal Court of Australia dismissed a challenge seeking to extend the lifespan of an intergovernmental forestry agreement. As a direct result, native logging operations are expected to proceed along the New South Wales (NSW) coastline.
The North East NSW Regional Forest Agreement (North East RFA) is a mutually agreed policy between the federal and NSW state governments regarding the use and management of the state’s native forests. This agreement has a substantial scope, covering approximately 10 million hectares of coastal forest extending from Sydney to the Queensland border.
In November 2018, the RFA was renewed for an additional 20 years by the federal government, with the prospect of further rolling extensions potentially continuing indefinitely. This extension met with strong opposition from the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA), who argued that the RFA was invalid because there wasn’t a new assessment of ‘environmental values’ and ‘principles of ecologically sustainable management’.
Representing NEFA, the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO) held that the government was required to assess ‘climate change, endangered species and old growth values and ecologically sustainable management’ before renewing the agreement, but failed to do so. NEFA’s concerns were largely centered around the contemporary impacts of climate change on the region and how these could negatively affect endangered species.
However, Justice Melissa Perry dismissed these arguments in a ruling on Wednesday. She asserted that an assessment was only required initially, not for any extensions. Perry also found that an assessment had indeed occurred and that there was no legal requirement for the assessment to be ‘sufficiently evaluative and reasonably contemporaneous’.
In her summation, Perry observed that the RFA provides an ‘alternative mechanism’ through which biodiversity objectives can be achieved. This is carried out via intergovernmental agreements and is not the courts’ responsibility.
This case is notable, as it is the first challenge to an RFA in NSW since these agreements came into existence in 2000.
Foresty Australia President Dr Michelle Freeman welcomed the court’s decision, stating, “Our RFAs time and time again have proven to be a successful way of sustainable managing Australia’s forests for all their values, and the Federal Court has confirmed this today.” She sought to assuage environmentalists’ fears by suggesting that effective protections were already in place for biodiversity management and conservation.
The ruling was considered a vindication for the sector by Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) CEO James Jooste. The AFPA urged the state government to acknowledge the importance of native forestry to job creation and the state economy.
Despite these assurances, NEFA President Dailan Pugh expressed his concerns about the decision by disagreeing with the court’s verdict, essentially suggesting that the court was over-reliant on assessments based on outdated 1997 data.