In the lead up to the International Day of Forests on Sunday 21 March 2021 a landmark paper published in Australian Forestry calls for the development of a new shared vision for Australia’s forests.
The paper, Reshaping forest management in Australia to provide nature-based solutions to global challenges, sets out a vison to move beyond the era of forest conflict to develop more holistic approaches to adaptive forest management that encompass all our forest values.
“The Victorian community recognises the critical roles forests play, environmentally in conserving biodiversity, storing carbon, generating oxygen, and in providing a wide range of social and economic benefits for all Victorians”, said Dr Alastair Woodard, General Manager, Wood Products Victoria (WPV).
Ms Deb Kerr, Chief Executive Officer, Victorian Forest Products Association (VFPA) said, “For far too long our forest estate has been notionally broken into different categories, leading to poor outcomes in fire management, pest control and threatened species support. The concerted focus on the 0.04 per cent of our public forests results in most of the public land forest estate receiving almost no attention”.
On the International Day to recognise our forests, VFPA and WPV strongly support reshaping how we manage our forest landscapes to build resilience in our forests, local communities, and society.
The paper, is available to read in full HERE.
The authors of the paper are members of the Institute of Foresters of Australia and Australian Forest Growers (IFA/AFG), which is the professional association representing some 1,000 scientific and professional forest land managers in Australia.
The original media release is here: 210319 VFPA Media Release – Reshaping Victoria’s forests for the future