A Proposal for Stewardship Support to Private Native Forests in NSW

Vanclay, Jerome K., Thompson, David, Sayer, J. A., McNeely, Jeff, Kaimowitz, David, Gibbs, Anne, Crompton, Heather, Cameron, David and Bevege, Ian A Proposal for Stewardship Support to Private Native Forests in NSW. NSW: The Southern Cross Group of Forest Researchers and Practitioners, 2006.

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Author Vanclay, Jerome K.
Thompson, David
Sayer, J. A.
McNeely, Jeff
Kaimowitz, David
Gibbs, Anne
Crompton, Heather
Cameron, David
Bevege, Ian
Title A Proposal for Stewardship Support to Private Native Forests in NSW
Place of Publication NSW
Publisher The Southern Cross Group of Forest Researchers and Practitioners
Publication year 2006
Sub-type Non-fiction
ISBN 0-9775976-1-X
Subjects 300803 Natural Resource Management
300606 Agroforestry
300805 Conservation
300902 Land and Parks Management
300604 Management and Environment
300903 Sustainable Development
Abstract/Summary The Southern Cross Group is proposing a completely new approach to private forest management in NSW based on stewardship support. This means that incentives will be used to encourage landholders to manage their forests in a way that maintains their environmental and other values for the community, without compromising their value as a resource to the farming community. Importantly, the Southern Cross Group system will foster good outcomes through innovation rather than through cumbersome and onerous prescriptions. Private forests in NSW are important as a source of timber as well as for the conservation values they provide to the general community. Landholders should be encouraged to manage them in a way that preserves their productive capacity and their conservation values for the long term. At present, however, neither the current regulatory regime, including the Private Native Forest legislation and proposed code of practice, nor the current market regime encourages sustainable management of the State's private timber resources. The Southern Cross Group has designed an effective and simple way of fostering and rewarding good stewardship of private native forests. Good stewardship may be viewed as a 'duty of care' responsibility that should be enforced by legislation, or as an environmental service that should be recognised and rewarded. The distinction is academic: the reality is that incentives are more effective than punitive regulations. Good environmental outcomes for most forests depend on active management and, especially in the case of private native forests, on incentives for continuing management. The challenge is to devise an equitable scheme that sends the right signals for forest management, is cost-effective to administer, and represents a worthwhile investment in terms of the public good generated. We believe the way forward is with simple, transparent indicators that provide an immediate and ongoing incentive. Under our proposal, landholders will receive an annual cash payment as a reward for progress towards specific outcomes. Rather than complicated targets, we are proposing a simple, two-tiered system that will give enough incentive to landholders to provide the environmental services desired by the community. The first tier rewards and encourages landholders to regenerate more forest, to retain big trees, and to stimulate tree growth on private land. The second tier rewards and encourages stewardship of endangered species and ecological communities. These incentives will be simple to apply and audit, and will encourage landholders to learn about and encourage biodiversity on their land, and to consider it part of their income portfolio. This system will contribute to farmers seeing forests as core business, both as part of their income stream and as part of their environmental stewardship responsibilities. When all farmers view forests in this way, Australia will reap the benefit of forests that are more diverse and productive, and a forest estate that no longer continues to shrink.
Keyword stewardship
private native forest
conservation
multiple-use forestry
Q-Index Code AX
Q-Index Status Provisional Code
Institutional Status Unknown
 
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Created: Wed, 13 Sep 2006, 10:00:00 EST by Jerome K. Vanclay on behalf of School of Integrative Systems  -  Detailed History