Reporting

In 2018, the New South Wales and Australian governments renewed and extended the three Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) in NSW, covering the Eden, North East and Southern regions.

The governments agreed to streamlined outcomes focused reporting under the renewed NSW RFAs that will align with other national reporting obligations.

The information in this section articulates the timelines and progress reporting guidelines for the fifth five-yearly review, due to commence in 2024.

Background

The NSW RFAs are long-term bilateral agreements that strike a balance between the environmental, social and economic uses of our forests.

The three NSW RFAs were signed by the State of New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia (the Parties) for Eden in 1999, for North East NSW in 2000 and for Southern NSW in 2001.

It is a requirement of the NSW RFAs that its performance is reviewed every five years. The details of the NSW RFA review process are outlined in each agreement.

The purpose of the five-yearly review process is to examine if New South Wales’ forest management is in accordance with the RFAs to demonstrate ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM). It is not to renegotiate the Agreements.

The RFAs contain clauses in relation to reporting and reviewing. Under section 10(6) of the Regional Forest Agreements Act 2002 (Cth) (RFA Act), a review report of the performance of an RFA is to be tabled in each House of the Parliament of Australia. Information on the previous reviews can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment website.

In 2018, the Parties also undertook a further assessment of forest-related environmental, social and economic values in the NSW RFA regions.

The Parties agreed:

• that the assessment process, the consultation undertaken in early 2018 and the results of the monitoring of Sustainability Indicators in A report on progress with implementation of the New South Wales Regional Forest Agreements: Second and third five-yearly reviews July 2004 – June 2014, November 2017 constitute the five-yearly review that was due in 2019
• that the future timing of monitoring and reporting of all three RFAs would align with the Eden RFA.

The most recent NSW RFA extensions were formalised on 28 November 2018 following assessment, public consultation, independent review and consideration.

The renewed NSW RFAs deliver improvements, including rolling five-year extensions to the 20-year agreements. This is subject to satisfactory performance and review and an outcomes-focused five-yearly review process.

NSW outcomes focused RFA progress reporting

The fifth and all future progress reports will demonstrate the broader purpose and outcomes of the NSW RFAs. The evidence supporting this analysis will be found primarily in the Commonwealth State of the Forests Reports, NSW Forest Management Framework (including its agencies practices and systems) and the various Natural Resources Commission NSW forest and RFA related programs.

Key components of the five-yearly review

The key components in the 2024 review process are:

• The Australian and NSW Government will prepare a Scoping Agreement and Progress Report for the review.
• The review will be undertaken by an independent reviewer who will:
  
  
  • take into account public comments (through a public consultation process)
  • use and take into account the Progress report/li>
  • develop and submit a report detailing the five yearly review process and its finding and recommendations within three months of commencement.
• The Independent Review report will be tabled in the Australian Parliament within 15 sitting days after the report is provided to Ministers.
• The Australian and NSW Governments will prepare a joint government response to the Independent Review report within six months of receiving the report.

The five yearly review will be completed upon tabling in both parliaments of the joint government response to the Independent Review report. If the parties agree that implementation has been satisfactory, the five-year extension pursuant to clauses 6A and 6B of each NSW RFA will then take effect.

The review will commence in 2024.

The review Scoping Agreement

Under the NSW RFAs, a review of the performance of the agreements is to commence during the last year of each five-year period with the release of the five-yearly review Scoping Agreement.

The Scoping Agreement is made between the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales, and includes any agreed priorities, procedures and funding arrangements for the conduct of the five-yearly review.

Public consultation

Public consultation on the NSW RFAs progress report is a key consideration for five-yearly reviews and a necessary input for the Independent Review (Clause 8H(a)).

The Scoping Agreement for each five-yearly review will provide information about the process for conducting public consultation including consultation timeframes.

Other information for the five-yearly reviews

As well as preparing a Progress Report for each five-yearly review, the following will also provide useful information for the five-yearly review:

• NSW will update and publicly release the document Overview of the New South Wales Forest Management Framework (Clause 8H (c)).
• NSW will review and update the document Sustainable Yield in New South Wales Regional Forest Agreement regions from State forests at least once every five-year review period, or more frequently on an as needs basis, and will make publicly available the independent audit of Sustainable Yield calculations by publication on the website of the relevant department or agency. (Eden RFA Attachment 11, clauses 2,3A).

Roles and responsibilities

• For the NSW Government, the NSW Department of Primary Industries is responsible for the development of five-yearly Progress Reports on Regional Forest Agreements.
• The NSW Government established a role for the Natural Resources Commission (NRC), under Clause 8A of the NSW Regional Forest Agreements. The NRCs role is to independently oversee and advise on a state-wide monitoring, evaluation, reporting and improvement program for NSW forests, including state forests, national parks, private native forests and crown forested land and will develop evidence-based recommendations to improve forest management to be provided to the NSW Government.
• The NSW and Australian governments can consider these reports delivered under the NSW RFA MER plan and progress on implementing any of the recommendations, through its review processes, which formally occur every five years.
• The NSW Forest Monitoring Steering Committee is responsible for overseeing the reviews of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Plan.

Outputs of the MER Plan

Reviews of the RFA MER Plan will be provided to the NSW agencies involved in the RFAs and the Australian Government and will be published on the Commission’s website, or other location as approved by the Steering Committee.