The Minister for Environment and Heritage cannot guarantee a figure of 140,000 cubic metres per annum for timber harvesting due to legal obligations for environmental assessment and sustainability concerns. The government aims to get close to that figure while ensuring sustainability.

AnsweredQoN 861Legislative Assembly
Asked
28 March 2002
Member
Portfolio
Environment and Heritage

QuestionView source ↗

Will the minister guarantee the figure of 140 000 cubic metres per annum? Dr EDWARDS

AnswerView source ↗

There cannot be a guarantee. The Conservation and Land Management Act obliges the Government to go through this process with the forest management plan. The nature of the forest management plan requires that it be always referred to the EPA. It is a major proposal, so there must be an EPA assessment. The Government cannot pre-empt both those processes and say that 140 000 cubic metres is the guaranteed figure. As far as possible, based on all the work we have done to date - and getting the best estimate of work that is to go on, which both adds and subtracts from the likely areas and volumes - we hope to get close to that figure. At the end of day it must be a sustainable figure. The only way the industry will continue into the future is for that figure to be a sustainable figure. The comments from the seminar to which the member for Wagin referred are that we have not managed our forests sustainably.
Dr EDWARDS replied: There cannot be a guarantee. The Conservation and Land Management Act obliges the Government to go through this process with the forest management plan. The nature of the forest management plan requires that it be always referred to the EPA. It is a major proposal, so there must be an EPA assessment. The Government cannot pre-empt both those processes and say that 140 000 cubic metres is the guaranteed figure. As far as possible, based on all the work we have done to date - and getting the best estimate of work that is to go on, which both adds and subtracts from the likely areas and volumes - we hope to get close to that figure. At the end of day it must be a sustainable figure. The only way the industry will continue into the future is for that figure to be a sustainable figure. The comments from the seminar to which the member for Wagin referred are that we have not managed our forests sustainably.
There cannot be a guarantee. The Conservation and Land Management Act obliges the Government to go through this process with the forest management plan. The nature of the forest management plan requires that it be always referred to the EPA. It is a major proposal, so there must be an EPA assessment. The Government cannot pre-empt both those processes and say that 140 000 cubic metres is the guaranteed figure. As far as possible, based on all the work we have done to date - and getting the best estimate of work that is to go on, which both adds and subtracts from the likely areas and volumes - we hope to get close to that figure. At the end of day it must be a sustainable figure. The only way the industry will continue into the future is for that figure to be a sustainable figure. The comments from the seminar to which the member for Wagin referred are that we have not managed our forests sustainably.

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