The Rubicon Forest Protection Group is calling for meaningful standards to be set to guide the management of the Rubicon Forest under whatever land use regime is established following the cessation of native forest logging in Victoria.

On 15 March the RFPG welcomed the Eminent Panel for Community Engagement (EPCE), appointed by DEECA (Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action) to advise on the future of the state forests of the Central Highlands, on the occasion of their visit to the Rubicon State Forest.

The Panel was shown the devastating impact of logging on the western face of the Royston Range. They were invited to marvel at the awesome beauty of areas of protected areas of forest. They saw glimpses of the tourist potential of the forest.

RFPG members spoke of their passion for the Rubicon Forest. They highlighted the twin challenges of repair and resilience. The task of repairing the areas degraded by widescale logging, failed regeneration, and feral weeds and animals is huge. Beyond recovery looms the task of building the resilience of the Forest in the face of a warming drying future.

The RFPG is calling for meaningful standards, rigorous monitoring, and tight accountability of the management authority for their implementation.Education and training of staff will be a key requirement for the achievement of the proposed standards. The State Government must be held accountable for the integrity of its planning and for the adequacy of its budget allocation to the new management regime.   

As a first step the RFPG is calling for an audit of the most at risk areas to identify the specific challenges and to set priorities. For the longer term, RFPG is calling for a forest science program directed to addressing the uncertainties and controversies which confront recovery and resilience efforts.  

See RFPG preliminary submission here. 

Background

The DEECA website advises that:

As part of an in-depth community engagement process …  the Eminent Panel for Community Engagement will be to speaking with the Victorian community including Traditional Owners, land managers and local groups to understand values and priorities for these forests.

The Eminent Panel will assess the Central Highlands State forests for future uses, including [identifying]: areas of our forests that qualify for protection as National Parks; areas of our forests that would be suitable for recreation opportunities, including camping, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, and four-wheel driving; and opportunities for management of public land by Traditional Owners.

The work of the Eminent Panel builds on the Interim Report of the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC) on the Values of the State Forests of the Central Highlands. For this report, VEAC was commissioned “to carry out an assessment of the values of the Immediate Protection Areas in the Central Highlands and in adjacent state forests in eastern Victoria as determined by the Council.” … “The assessment will inform the work of an Eminent Panel for Community Engagement (the Panel or EPCE) in its provision of advice and recommendations to the Minister for Environment on the future uses of the Immediate Protection Areas and adjacent state forest in eastern Victoria.” … “The Council will engage with the Panel regarding the content of the Council’s assessment.”

VEAC reported that it had "identified large areas of high natural values with relatively low conflicting uses that could be protected in a public land category such as national park, and that link the existing national parks in the region".  It concluded that:

“A large protected area such as a national park is commensurate with the outstanding natural values of three large areas in the north and south of the RFA [regional forest agreement] area (units 1, 3 and 4 in figure 5.2) and would link the existing Yarra Ranges, Kinglake, Lake Eildon and Baw Baw national parks and the Bunyip, Cathedral Range and Moondarra state parks. There are relatively few uses that would conflict with the national park designation, although this is an area that the EPCE [Eminent Panel for Community Engagement] should explore further with the community during its engagement period. This area encompasses the full range of major forest types and landscapes of the Central Highlands including the wet montane ash forests and rainforests that characterise the region.”

The Interim VEAC Report suggests that the main focus of the Eminent Panel’s deliberations will be to “provide recommendations to the government on the future use of the state forests”.

While VEAC was required to assess identify the biodiversity, ecological and geological and geomorphological values of the forest and the cultural heritage, social and economic values of the forest, it was not required to undertake a consultation around ‘community values’.  The purpose of the Eminent Panel consultation is to hear how ‘the community’ experiences the forest.

17 March 2024