Dr WOODRUFF - What specific progress has been made on securing FSC certification?
Mr de FEGELY - I will ask Suzette to answer that as she is in charge of that process.
Ms WEEDING - For the last few years we have been working through a range of activities around progressing towards FSC certification. One of our key activities which takes some time is looking at habitat retention retentions trials. We've got a total of 19 harvest areas where we've implemented habitat retention and that's retaining trees across the harvest area and there's a process we are working through in relation to that.
The key aspects that we're looking at in terms of those trials is safety and whether we can safely retain those trees - this is part of the non-conformances in relation to the last FSC audit - is it economic and how does it actually work in terms of stacking up in terms of economics, what is the product recovery that we receive out of these coupes, and most importantly the regeneration side of things, which I guess is the time factor. Can we undertake a regeneration burn, what's the impact on regeneration in relation to retention of those trees in that we may not be able to burn at the same intensity and what's the survival of those trees in those sorts of instances? We're working through that process at the moment and we're still getting results coming in. As you can imagine, harvesting to regeneration and assessing regeneration is a multi-year process and it takes some time.
Dr WOODRUFF - How are you dealing with the major non-compliances with regard to swift parrot logging of threatened species habitat?
Ms WEEDING - In terms of the swift parrot we're implementing a range of actions around managing them and part of it is looking to understand in more detail where the swift parrots are and one of our projects this year and for the last few years has been implementing quite a detailed monitoring program of where the swift parrots are. That includes pre-bud surveys of where the foraging resource is likely to be and then subsequent monitoring of the birds when they arrive to see where they're located, where they are in and around our harvest areas and therefore how we might implement management actions in relation to our harvesting activities to manage the species and the landscape.
Dr WOODRUFF - You'd be aware of the many reports in a number of active coupes at the moment of swift parrots that have been seen nesting in trees that are in coupes and also flying around. How do you respond to those things? Clearly there are critically endangered species in the coupes you're logging in at the moment.
Ms WEEDING - In relation to that we absolutely welcome and are happy to receive reports of threatened species in and around our harvest operations and we take them seriously and investigate them. What we are undertaking in relation to our harvesting activities and particularly in areas where we've got swift parrots in and around is acoustic and detailed monitoring. We have an anthologist that works with us and we've got our own people who go out and specifically investigate reports of swift parrots and work out where they are nesting and whether there is habitat within the particular operation area and whether there is a risk in relation to the species.
Dr WOODRUFF - Did you make the decision to reinstate transparency around forest practice plans in a bid to secure FSC certification?
Ms WEEDING - It wasn't linked, no.
Mr BAYLEY - I'd like to explore the swift parrot habitat logging a little bit further. It's clearly been a demonstrable failure over many years, evidenced by it being a non-compliance in both of the FSC application processes and, indeed, there's been numerous reports and RTI disclosures that demonstrate a systemic approval of forest practices plans directly counter to the advice of expert scientists, including departmental scientists.
Recently, citizen science in coupe KD022C - an active logging coupe - witnessed swift parrots in that area and confirmed that the parrots are there, that there are hollow-bearing trees in that area and, indeed, that coupe's in one of the Government's own swift parrot important breeding areas and I understand you registered the presence of swift parrots there on the Natural Values Atlas yourselves. Can you categorically rule out that forest practices plans aren't being approved despite the advice of expert scientists because we are still hearing the advice of scientists that have been fed into these processes and these forest practices plans continue to get approved?
Mr ELLIS - I will make a general comment around forest practices plans, which, obviously, go through a process with the Forest Practices Authority (FPA), an independent regulator -
Mr BAYLEY - It was regularly shown in RTI disclosures going back some years, minister, that they were being approved irrespective of the advice of departmental scientists that they shouldn't be approved because of important habitat values, including that of the swift parrot so I'm really interested to know whether plans are still being approved, despite the fact that scientists - some of them internal within departmental processes - are giving advice to the contrary?
Mr ELLIS - As I say, Forest Practices Authority is an independent regulator so, obviously, they are not available here at our scrutiny today but in terms of the plans themselves, perhaps, if that's what you're asking rather than what the authority is?
Mr BAYLEY - It's the entity's officers that are certifying them in many cases so, please -
Ms WEEDING - Just to be clear there, forest practices officers have delegated authority under the Forest Practices Act that certify plans.
In terms of Kermandie 22C, so KD022C that you referred to, it's a small 20 hectare native forest coupe located near Geeveston. The majority of the coupe is regrowth native forest and it has sections of tall forest in it. It was previously harvested in 1940 so it's had previous harvesting activity in that location.
As part of our assessment and our forest practices plan assessment for that harvest operation, the swift parrot was a key consideration and management of habitat in that particular coupe.
For that particular coupe there is no foraging habitat located within the operational harvesting area, however, we have excluded large areas of potential nesting habitat from the harvest area.
There are two trees that have the potential and which have nesting hollows and we are monitoring those at the moment to see whether the birds are utilising those.
Mr BAYLEY - And was there scientific advice that the plans shouldn't be approved?
Ms WEEDING - Not that the plans shouldn't be approved, no. We have subsequently received information from some experts around birds in the area and the location of birds and, as I have mentioned previously, this is a particular area where we've been focusing our monitoring activities. We have had our ornithologist and our own staff out there undertaking specific monitoring in relation to this coupe because we are getting reports of swift parrots and we do take it seriously when that comes through.
We want to see where the activity is occurring, whether it is occurring within the harvest operation or whether there are management measurements that we need to put in place or additional management measures we need to put in place. In this case, we have not found any nesting birds within the coupe. Nesting activity, absolutely, in the area and we are monitoring that closely through both acoustic monitoring but also our onsite inspections.
Mr BAYLEY - In another coupe, HP 29E, have you had a monitoring ornithologist in that area? What have they found?
Mr ELLIS - Not to be confused with a monitoring orthodontist.
Mr BAYLEY - Through you, Chair. I would like to check in on FSE certification and the process there. Ms Weeding talked about that. She talked about the 19 trials, the safety, the economic, the recovery, the regen. I guess you’ve last failed in 2019 and the cynic in me questions whether there is genuinely an intent. We are still getting the same issues - logging in incredible and valuable areas of threatened species habitat as we discussed in the last exchange.
What is the timeline for this process? When do you aim to have this done? How long do these trials take? When do you aim to have the documentations submitted to FSE and a determination by them?
Ms WEEDING - Part of the process from here is determining a time frame in which to bring the auditors back. It is not submitting more information as such, it is about getting the auditors back. They will have to assess our operations in relation to conformance with their standard. The last time we undertook this assessment we had quite a high degree of conformance in relation to the standard. We probably expect that to be similar although clearly they'd have to relook at that given the time that has passed since the last audit.
Our key focus is to work through those non-conformances that the FSE auditors identified. It is a process. As I said, it takes some time in terms of the assessing the regeneration activities from those particular coupes. We are still committed to staying on the process and achieving FSE certification. We are putting in place actions around that. We don't have a time frame at this stage in terms of getting the auditors back.
What we want to do is make sure we have got the best case to put forward to the auditors and we have all the information we need in order to make those decisions.
Mr BAYLEY - With respect, the non-conformance was not around regeneration performance, it was around swift parrot and other habitat. And we are still seeing that today. The only way you can address this is to reduce the intensity of logging on the landscape.
Log less, produce less wood, ultimately. I guess the question also is when it comes to the sustainable yield calculations that were completed last year, are they calculations done at business as usual as at today, as at the last four years? Or have you taken into account some considerations about what you need to do? If you have any hope in hell of getting FSE certification, you will need to reduce your intensity which means the sustainable yield would demonstrably need to be less. Has FSE been factored into those sustainable yield calculations?
Ms WEEDING - Step back to the first part of your query around the issue around the non-conformances. The non-conformance that we received: there is one around swift parrot management. The one around that in particular is relation to the trials around increasing habitat and retention of large trees in harvesting operations. They acknowledged that we retain quite a bit of habitat around our harvesting operations. The key focus for that non-conformance is around increasing retention within the harvest area itself and that is what we have been focused on.
Important for us is there is a decision to be made around whether this is viable means of harvesting these particular coupes or whether we need to look at it in a different way. That is part of this assessment process that we are running through around can we safely harvest using this methodology of individual tree retention within these coupes? Will they survive the regeneration burn? If they don’t survive and they have, we have about 50 per cent at this point of time. It depends on the species.
Dr WOODRUFF - You haven’t checked them 20 to 30 years down the track as surviving without a community of trees around them.
Ms WEEDING - No but we have assessed the ones originally. We have to work through a process in terms of an assessment process but we have survivability of those trees. They are still habitat even if they are still standing dead trees but it is just to work through that process.
Mr BAYLEY - You know what you need to do which is protect habitat. You are just trying to work out how you can do that safely, economically, maintain recovery and the landscape regenerate. But coming back to the point around the sustainable yield is that modelled at business as usual? Or do you factor in a reduction in logging intensity across the landscape in those calculations? It is quite self-evident I would say. You can trial it death but it is very clear you need to log less and log in different places if you are going to keep logging native forests.
Ms WEEDING - Our sustainable yield takes into account a whole range of factors. It includes discounts for a range of components. At this stage we have not made the full decision around the harvesting methodology that will look to apply in these areas. Arguably, it is business as usual in terms of what we are expecting to obtain from these areas. Clearly, that is not the case in the basis of the trials. That is the purpose for undertaking trails, to enable us to understand it. The important thing about the FSC standard and the Responsible Wood Standard is that there is a balance between social, economic and environmental factors that is taken into account in relation to the activity.
