Additional Environmental Protections

The Victorian Government has introduced a $14 million package that will focus on upholding environmental standards in native timber harvesting, including by:

• providing increased clarity for meeting obligations under the precautionary principle through compliance standards, and
• furthering best practice regeneration of native timber harvesting coupes.

Coupe Regeneration

The Victorian Government invested in a $14 million package to enhance regulatory certainty and environmental outcomes following native timber harvesting.

This includes $2.38 million to establish best practice procedures for the long-term management of regenerated timber harvesting coupes and their reintegration to DEECA’s broader, active management of state forests.

What will the funding provide?

Regenerating forests after timber harvesting is a critical part of ecologically sustainable forest management of Victorian forests as we transition away from native timber harvesting.

The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) will develop a new best practice Forest Coupe Regeneration and Reintegration Procedure.

The procedure will:

• clarify regeneration practices, and handback procedures, including a role for the DEECA Secretary in the removal of regenerated coupes from the Timber Release Plan
• strengthen land manger oversight of regeneration activities including confirmation that regeneration has occurred to the standards required in the Code of Practice for Timber Production
• establish confirmation of coupe regeneration before a coupe is removed from the Timber Release Plan, and land management responsibility transfers from VicForests to DEECA
• establish steps for reintegrating the finalised coupes into DEECA’s management of the broader State forest estate, and
• specify active forest management approaches to protect the environmental condition of these sites, supporting the many forest values that Victorians enjoy.

What does it mean for our forests?

Victoria’s forests are among the most ecologically diverse in Australia. Victorians value their forests for many reasons and are interested in their future.

State forests face significant challenges from climate change, more frequent fires, population growth, and changing community needs. These multiple pressures need to be managed.

DEECA, in partnership with Traditional Owners and other land managers, actively manages the state’s forests to enable these regenerated coupes to continue providing their many forest values for Victorians into the future.

Ecologically sustainable forest management enables a range of forest uses to occur whilst retaining and protecting forest values. A key part of this is regeneration of former native timber coupes.

This initiative will improve processes across all stages of regeneration activities. This will include communication of coupe finalisation and reintegration into DEECA’s land management responsibilities, and the systems and operations that are appropriate to support regenerated coupes.

This will provide for healthier forests through better regeneration and management systems. Healthier forests will continue to support the many benefits Victorians derive from forests.

Victorians depend on the ecosystems forests provide for example water filtration, biomass, retention of soil and carbon and opportunities for recreation and tourism.