VicForests

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VicForests was a Government Backed Enterprise (GBE) operating in the Australian state of Victoria. Its principal function was to undertake logging and commercial sale of timber from state forests in Victoria.

Contents

Overview

VicForests [1] was a state-owned business responsible for the sustainable harvesting, regrowth, and commercial sale of timber from Victoria's state forests on behalf of the Victorian Government.

It was created as a state body under Section 14 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1992 [2] by the Victorian Government, being declared a state business corporation on 28 October 2003. [3]

It operated within designated areas of state forest that are managed by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA). DEECA was also responsible for regulating compliance of VicForests' activities in accordance with the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (as amended 2022) (the Code). [4]

It permanently ceased logging operations on 1 January 2024, following successful legal challenges by several environmental groups. These led to court orders requiring VicForests to reassess its methods of surveying and protection of endangered plants and animals within areas of forest it wished to cut down. [5]

Contribution to the Victorian economy

Proponents of the native timber industry noted its contribution of hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs to regional Victoria each year. [6]

It nevertheless struggled to return a profit, and relied on subsidies from the Victorian government. One such subsidy was termed in its annual reports as 'reimbursement of foregone income for the Leadbeater's Possum recovery program'. [7] In effect, it was being paid not to log the habitat of an endangered species. Beginning with some $1.5m in 2015, this compensation rose in value every year until it amounted to $11.07m in 2019. In 2020 this subsidy was discontinued, although in this same year VicForests was rewarded with $12m for provision of nebulous 'non-commercial community and environmental services'. [8] This subsidy continued until 2023.

From 2020 until its demise in 2024, VicForests incurred operating losses each year. In the financial year 2021-22, it made $88.4m in sales across its timber operations [9] but had an operating loss of $54.2m. In its financial report, VicForests' CEO stated that its failure to meet supply targets was "largely because injunctions granted in legal proceedings made harvesting in many planned coupes unviable or prohibited harvesting altogether." Also blamed for the loss was the cost of litigation, stand down payments to contractors and compensation to customers. [10]

In 2022-23, with much of logging on hold owing to court injunctions, it lost $60.1m. [11] This is despite reimbursement of $149m from government to cover payments to contractors and customers.

A 2018 study by Forest and Wood Products Australia estimated some 1639 direct jobs in Victorian native forest logging, and 4792 jobs altogether, including production and consumption-induced jobs. [12]

Controversies

Certification

Fire

Spying

Logging operations

Litigation

Court action by environmental groups led to the demise of VicForests. These cases generally hinged upon interpretation of the Precautionary Principle, which was a clause in the Code of Practice for Timber Production. The Supreme Court of Victoria defines it here:

The Code requires the application of the ‘precautionary principle’ during planning for harvesting, meaning that ‘if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation’. It also requires the identification of biodiversity values during planning and prior to harvesting. [30]

By 2020, VicForests was a defendant in 5 separate legal proceedings. These were brought by the Flora and Fauna Research Collective, Friends of Leadbeaters' Possum, Wildlife of the Central Highlands, Warburton Environment and Kinglake Friends of the Forest. [31] In May 2020, the Leadbeaters' case ended in a legal loss for VicForests in the Federal Court.

The central breach of the Code found that VicForests did not comply with precautionary principle laws in certain forests where Greater Gliders are living, because those logging operations do not avoid serious or irreversible damage to the species wherever practical. [32]

VicForests appealed the decision to the full Federal Court. Out of the 31 grounds on which it appealed, it won only one: the court found that VicForests' logging operations were still exempt from federal environment law under Regional Forest Agreements, even when in breach of state law. [32]

In November 2022, VicForests lost three court cases. One was the Warburton Environment case, concerning the protection of a threatened plant species called Tree Geebung. The other two cases were new and brought by Environment East Gippsland and Kinglake Friends of the Forest (heard together by the court owing to their similarity.) This was about the adequacy of the protection for two endangered possum species, the Greater Glider and Yellow-bellied Glider. [33]

This last case resulted in the cessation of logging operations throughout Victoria in November 2022 until new surveying techniques could be implemented by VicForests. [34]

Cessation of native timber harvesting and the Victorian Forestry Plan

On 6 November 2019, the Victorian Government announced the transition from native timber harvesting by 2030 to a plantation-based sector as part of its Victorian Forestry Plan (VFP). [35]

The phase out would have seen VicForests' total harvest levels maintained at approximately the current levels until 2024, then reduced by around 25% in 2025, and a further 25% from 2026 to 2030. [36]

However, on 23 May 2023, the Victorian government announced that logging of native forests would instead cease on 1 January 2024. The date was brought forward owing to "uncertainty that has been caused by ongoing court and litigation process and increasingly severe bushfires." [37]

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References

  1. ↑ "VicForests". vicforests.com.au. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  2. ↑ "State Owned Enterprises Act 1992" (PDF). 26 November 1992.
  3. ↑ "Statement of Corporate Intent 2014 -15 to 2016 -17" (PDF). Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014" (PDF). 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  5. ↑ "Two landmark court wins for our forests in two weeks". Environmental Justice Australia. 19 January 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "The economic impact of VicForests on the Victorian community" (PDF). VicForests. September 2017.
  7. ↑ "VicForests Annual Report 2018-2019" (PDF). VicForests. 19 January 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "VicForests Annual Report 2019-2020" (PDF). VicForests. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  9. ↑ "VicForests 2021-22 annual report" (PDF). VicForests.
  10. ↑ "VicForests Annual Report 2021-2022" (PDF). VicForests. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  11. ↑ Hopkins, Philip (30 November 2023). "Litigation had fundamental impact on VicForests' financial results". Gippsland Times. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  12. ↑ Schirmer, Mylek, Magnusson, Yabsley, Morison (March 2018). "Socio-economic impacts of the forest industry Victoria (exc. the Green Triangle)" (PDF). Forest and Wood Product Australia. Retrieved 19 August 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ "FOREST MANAGEMENT CONTROLLED WOOD CERTIFICATION EVALUATION REPORT" (PDF). VicForests. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  14. ↑ "VicForests' postponement of FSC® Controlled Wood Standard". VicForests. 12 August 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  15. ↑ Taylor, Chris (17 May 2018). "Logging burns conceal industrial pollution in the name of 'community safety'". The Conversation. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  16. ↑ Zylstra; Wardell-Johnson; Watson; Ward (21 May 2021). "Native forest logging makes bushfires worse – and to say otherwise ignores the facts". University of Wollongong Australia. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  17. 1 2 Slezak, Michael; Kewley, Laura (25 November 2021). "VicForests accused of 'spying' on protesters and environmentalists". ABC News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  18. ↑ "Information Commissioner finds VicForests conducted unlawful surveillance". Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  19. ↑ Slezak, Michael (9 March 2023). "VicForests slammed for its handling of FOI request following 'spying' allegations". ABC News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  20. ↑ Slezak, Michael (24 November 2021). "Lawless Loggers". ABC News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  21. ↑ Slezak, Michael (13 November 2022). "The Vanishing Old Growth Forests". ABC News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  22. ↑ Perkins, Miki (25 November 2022). "'Protection zones' for endangered possums already logged, environment groups say". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  23. ↑ "Regrowing our forests". www.vicforests.com.au. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  24. ↑ Slezak, Michael (30 November 2021). "The disappearing forests". ABC News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  25. ↑ "Additional Environmental Protections". Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  26. ↑ "LOCKDOWN TO BLACKOUT: Victoria dealt another brutal blow as wild weather SMASHES east coast". 7NEWS. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  27. ↑ "Trees down, thousands of homes without power as wild storms hit Victoria". ABC News. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  28. ↑ McGrath, Gavin (12 May 2022). "Wombat Forest salvage logging continues after Game Management Authority removes protesters". ABC News. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  29. ↑ "Nefarious salvage logging afoot in the Dandenong Ranges National Park". Victorian National Parks Association. 30 December 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  30. ↑ "VICFORESTS V ENVIRONMENT EAST GIPPSLAND INC & ANOR [2023] VSCA 159". Supreme Court of Victoria. 27 June 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  31. ↑ "Annual Report VicForests 2019-2020" (PDF). Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  32. 1 2 "The case to stop VicForests logging critical habitat for our threatened possums". Environmental Justice Australia. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  33. ↑ Readfearn, Graham (4 November 2022). "Victorian state logging company failed to protect threatened gliders, court finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  34. ↑ "Development of new surveying techniques". VicForests. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  35. ↑ "Securing The Future For Forestry Industry Workers | Premier of Victoria". premier.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  36. ↑ "VicForests to support native timber sector transformation" (PDF). VicForests. 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  37. ↑ "Delivering certainty for timber workers". 23 May 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
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