NAFI submission on Renewable Energy Amendment Bill May 2010

NAFI Submission on Australia’s Native Vegetation Framework Consultation Draft

This framework sets out high level policy goals for the effective management of Australia’s native vegetation at national, state and regional levels.

Australia has 147.4 million hectares of native forest, with 23 million hectares in conservation reserve and 9.4 million hectares in public forest where timber harvesting may be permitted subject to environmental regulation. Australia has a further 2 million hectares of plantation forests.

Submission on the Development of Sustainable Diversion Limits for the Murray Darling Basin: Issues Paper

With respect to the Murray-Darling Basin, forestry represents a relatively small proportion of the total area of land use. Plantation forests, being interceptors of water (i.e. rainfall) before it reaches streams and aquifers, are a minor land use. This is true even at the smaller catchment and sub-catchment scale.

Nevertheless, trees, along with other vegetation interceptors, are part of the ‘cloud-to-cloud’ water cycle1 and their water use may be significant in some areas and at some scales. How this water use may be accounted for and managed in an equitable manner within the overall water management system is a critical task for policy makers.

Submission on the Draft Regulatory Impact Statement - Proposed new policy on illegally logged timber

The National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) broadly supports the findings of the draft Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), prepared by the Centre for International Economics.

NAFI acknowledges the difficulty in qualifying or quantifying the expected costs to society from Australian Government policy measures to reduce illegal logging. The complexity of the issue and information deficiencies supports the case for a phased approach in Australian Government policy development. For example, the current reliance on broad estimates, such as the 10% value assumed for illegal or dubious sourced wood imports into Australia, underlines the need for more accurate data on the extent of illegal logging practices overseas.

Submission for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Stakeholder Consultation

From an economy-wide perspective, forestry is recognised as Australia’s only carbon positive industry, and with the right legislative framework, could contribute as much as 20 per cent of Australia’s emission reduction targets by 2020.

In formulating CPRS and related climate change policies, it is important that design rules and policies take a holistic approach across the forest sector by takins into account the carbon sequestration of tress, the carbon stored in wood products, the renewable, green energy produced from wood waste and the substitution of emission intensice building materials with lower emission wood products.

Submission on the Independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity

As with the previous submissions by NAFI to the independent review, this submission focuses on the relationship between the operation of the EPBC Act and RFA Act. However, the comprehensive policy framework provided by the RFA process is relevant to other aspects of the review dealing with the regulatory efficiency of the EPBC Act and mechanisms for landscape scale assessments and streamlined biodiversity policy approaches.

Download: NAFI sub to Hawke EPBC interim report Aug 2009.pdf

Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Agricultural and Related Industries Inquiry into Bushfires in Australia

The tragic and devastating impacts from the 2009 Victorian bushfires as well as other recent conflagrations, such as the 2003 Canberra and New South Wales bushfires, highlight the urgent and important need to develop long lasting and effective bushfire mitigation and management strategies for Australia.

NAFI has consistently advocated for significant reform of public land management policies to ensure effective fire management practices are put in place across all land tenures, including most importantly fuel reduction burning and other measures to minimise the risks of high intensity fires from the build up of fuel loads.

Submission on Victorian Timber Industry Strategy public consultation

NAFI commends the Victorian Government on its draft timber industry strategy, and the recognition that the policy framework for forestry is becoming more complex. However, a more clearly defined vision and closer 'dovetailing' of infrastructure requirements would further enhance the strategy and the triple bottom line benefits of forestry.

Submission on National Energy Policy – Framework 2030 Strategic Directions Paper

Enough wood waste is produced at current harvesting rates - without harvesting a single extra tree - to produce around 3000 gigawatt hours of electricity, which is around 7 percent of Australia's renewable energy target. However, this clean, renewable energy source is not being used because of the significant policy and regulartory barriers currently in place.

NAFI is calling on the Australian Government to remove these barriers to allow the use of forest and wood waste to provide clean, renewable energy for Australia.

Supplementary submission to Senate Select Committee on Climate Policy: inquiry into policies relating to climate change

The forest industry is concerned about a number of inconsistencies across the various climate change policies which will limit the capacity of the industry to provide the maximum environmental and economic benefits. In particular, the CPRS Fuel Tax Credit Scheme excludes forestry activities while the narrow rule set of the CPRS creates a number of issues for the forest industry around uncertainty over carbon estimation methods, trading restrictions on exports of units compared to unlimited imports of international units and an inflexible carbon crediting approach for forest projects.

Submission to 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission

NAFI is concerned that without a national approach for significant reform of bushfire management policy across all land tenures, it will only be a matter of time before large conflagrations in forest areas will occur again in Australia. The imbalance between forest fire management practices adopted and implemented in conservation forests and multipleuse production forests needs to be addressed as part of a holistic approach to land management planning and regulation. Ineffectual land management policies and practices represent a significant threat to national economic, environmental and social security, given the catastrophic impacts of high intensity fires on individual lives and property, regional economies, communities, forests and forest dependant industries, biodiversity and other environmental values such as water quality. Australia has 149 million hectares of native forest and woodland, and nearly 2 million hectares of hardwood and softwood plantations, which need to be adequately protected and managed through integrated land management policies and practices for fire prevention. 

NAFI CPRS Fuel Credit Scheme submission April 2009

The Government’s proposed CPRS recognises the inflationary effect that carbon trading will have on fuel prices, and the inability of existing fuel tax credits to address this issue. Therefores, it is implementing the CPRS Fuel Credit Scheme to offset the increased prices for effected businesses, however forestry activities, despite currently receiving fuel tax credits, will be excluded.

The exclusion of forestry activities from the CPRS Fuel Credit Scheme will have the greatest impact on forestry contractors. These small businesses are generally family-managed, employing local people in rural areas. With the additional financial pressure of rising fuel costs (as will be likely under the CPRS without access to the CPRS Fuel Credit Scheme) many of these businesses will be put under severe financial pressure to remain viable.