August 1998
A collection of facts and figures on Australia’s forests has been provided by the Federal Minister for Primary Industries and Energy , Mr John Anderson, in a press release dated 7 August 1998.
Framework for Assessing Sustainable Forest Management at a Regional LevelThe Ministerial Council on Forestry, Fisheries and Aquaculture (MCFFA) and the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) released The Framework of Regional (Sub-national) Level Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management in Australia on 7 August 1998. The framework of regional indicators is derived from an internationally agreed basis for reporting on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management at a national level (the Montreal Processs) and provides a mechanism for collecting and monitoring information at a regional scale.
IUFRO Conference
The International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) Conference on Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management is to be held in Melbourne, on 24-28 August 1998. The focus of the conference is on the science underpinning criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management at the Forests Management Unit level for both plantations and natural forests in boreal, temperate and tropical biomes.
Was damage in the East Gippsland floods related to logging?
At the end of June 1998 the East Gippsland region of Victoria experienced devastating flooding. Subsequently, letters to ‘Your Say’, The Age, commented on whether or not logging was responsible for the extent of flood damage. A summary of the discussion is available here.
Of related interest is a paper for the Montreal Process Working Group by Philip J. Ryan, Simon Murphy and Neil J. McKenzie, ‘Assessing Soil Erosion Hazard for Australian Forest Management’ in which the erosion hazard assessment systems of forest management agencies in Australian states and territories, Canada, United States of America and New Zealand are reviewed.