South East Queensland Forest Agreement

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The South East Queensland Forests Agreement

The South East Queensland Forests Agreement (SEQFA) was negotiated and signed in 1999 by the Queensland Government, Timber Queensland, Australian Rainforest Conservation Society (ARCS), The Wilderness Society and Queensland Conservation Council.

In the final stages of negotiations ARCS put forward a proposal to phase out native forest harvesting in the area and transition to hardwood plantations over a 20-year period. The timber industry indicated a preparedness to accept the proposal but on the condition that the phase out occur over 25 years.

It had been established that there was sufficient timber outside the proposed immediate additions to the protected area estate to supply the industry for 20 years under the standard harvesting regime current at the time.

In order to extend supply for a further five years, forestry officers proposed that 40 cm+ harvesting be applied to certain areas. Under this regime, all commercially acceptable trees greater than 40 cm in diameter (at breast height) would be logged except for the number of habitat trees or recruitment habitat trees required by the Code of Practice.

Conservation representatives accepted the proposal on the grounds that the more intense logging would be over a limited area and the areas would never be logged again.

A clause in the SEQFA defines Part A areas, high conservation value forests, where the standard logging regime would be applied. Part A areas were initially considered for inclusion in the protected area additions. Conservation representatives accepted their exclusion given the ‘safeguards’ incorporated in the Agreement including the first-right-of-refusal for the State to buy out sawmills that came up for sale and a ‘logging as a last resort’ condition. Part A areas covered an area of around 80,000 hectares.

The overall result of the SEQFA was the initial transfer of 425,000 hectares to conservation reserves (mainly national park) with an end to logging by the end of 2024. The annual harvest volume was reduced from around 100,000 to 50,000 cubic metres.

It would appear that the SEQFA was effectively abandoned by the Liberal National Party (LNP) government which was elected in 2012.

We understand that shortly after taking office, the LNP government applied 40 cm+ logging across the region as standard practice, including in the Part A areas which were excluded from 40 cm+ logging in the SEQFA.

When Labor returned to office in 2015, the SEQFA was reinstated but 40 cm+ logging was retained across southern Queensland including the Part A areas.

In November 2019, the Queensland Government announced a Native Timber Action Plan which effectively eroded the SEQFA. Timber production in the SEQ Regional Plan area (south of Noosa) will end in December 2024 but will continue to the end of 2026 in the northern part of the SEQFA are, now called the Eastern Hardwoods Area. Further, there is no commitment to end logging in 2026 and the responsible agency, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), is assessing options for long-term timber supply in the area.

DAF has recently responded to the report provided by Dr Teresa Eyre in August 2023 (See the page ‘Queensland Government position’.)

Australian Rainforest Conservation Society Inc
PO Box 2111, Milton QLD 4064, Australia
telephone: 0408 451 061 email: aila@rainforestaustralia.org.au