Bill Kelty’s interim report on Tasmanian Forests has been submitted to the Senate and released publicly,  setting out recommendations on how he believes the conflict over the future of the Tasmanian timber industry could be resolved.

 

Mr Kelty was appointed as an independent facilitator in December last year to assist the forestry industry and several non-government environmental organisations to progress a principles agreement they had signed off on in October.

 

The outstanding issues under discussion were whether the pulp mill at Bell Bay is supported, whether native forest harvesting continues and whether there is flexibility in the area of high-conservation values areas to be reserved.

 

Mr Kelty concluded that there remains a strong divergence of opinion on the pulp mill at Bell Bay and has recommended that there should be an independent review of the current Pulp Mill assessment to clarify the main areas of concern within the current assessment of the Gunns proposal. Further, a permanent independent should be established including community representatives and compensation arrangements should be looked at for residents and business owners in The Tamar Valley seriously impacted by the mill.

 

Other recommendations include:

  • A full assessment of the native forest and plantation resources in the State and the potential to expand the plantation resource
  • An immediate review of the opportunities for the forest industry relating to carbon storage and substitution benefits.
  • Funding for research, development and extension activities with the growing, processing and seasoning properties of plantation grown wood; funding to research the capacity of the Tasmanian growing environment to sustain a plantation resource suitable to replace the high quality native forest resource; and creation of an innovation fund for development of new processing technologies with an emphasis on a plantation resource.

 

The interim report is available at http://www.environment.gov.au/land/publications/forestpolicy/tasmanian-forests-interim-report.html. A response is expected from the Australian Government in coming weeks.