About SEQFA
The South East Queensland Forests Agreement (SEQFA) was signed in September 1999
by the Queensland Timber Board, conservation groups and the Queensland Government.
It aims to achieve:
The agreement resulted from an extensive review of the uses and values of the forested estate in the South East Queensland Bioregion that commenced in the mid 1990s and involved local communities, conservation groups and industry. |
 Whites Mountain |
The SEQFA provided for the cessation of timber harvesting in native forest on State forests and timber reserves in the South East Queensland Bioregion. This commenced with the immediate cessation of harvesting on an estimated 425,000ha of native forest. These lands were then transferred into ‘forest reserve’, a holding tenure under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 and preparations commenced to transfer them to ‘protected area’. By the end of 2024, timber harvesting will have been completed on the remaining native forests (not plantations) in State forests and timber reserve, and these lands will be transferred to protected area.
Forest reserves
Forest reserve is a holding tenure under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 that was created to help transfer the forested lands into protected area tenure.Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) manages forest reserves under the Forestry Act 1959 in the same way as when they were State forests or timber reserves. The exception to this is commercial timber harvesting, which cannot occur on forest reserves. Other uses can continue until the area is gazetted as protected area.
Protected areas
Protected areas exist under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 to assist in the conservation of nature in Queensland. Protected areas are managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service or a trustee in accordance with the management principles for the class of protected area and a management plan.Classes of protected area that forest reserves can be transferred into include:
- national park (scientific);
- national park;
- national park (recovery) ;
- conservation park; and
- resources reserve .
How is the appropriate type of protected area determined?
When determining the type of protected area for an SEQFA reserve the highest possible conservation status was generally applied. Consideration was given to natural integrity, regional ecosystems and biological diversity.Specific recognition is given to:
- regional ecosystem status and level of representation in the protected area estate;
- biological diversity;
- rare and threatened species and their management needs;
- threatening processes; and
- uses and community conflict that may impact on conservation goals.
Benefits of SEQFA
The SEQFA process will deliver a number of important conservation outcomes. Firstly, it will provide protection to communities that are necessary to build a Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) reserve system. A CAR reserve system considers:- Comprehensive – includes the full range of forest communities (recognised as regional ecosystems in Queensland).
- Adequate – addresses the difficult question of extent (i.e. what is the level of reservation that will ensure survival of populations, species and communities? Or, how much is enough?)
- Representative – ensuring that the diversity within each regional ecosystem is represented within the reserve system.
Secondly, Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management (ESFM) of the whole estate, both on and off reserves, involves managing forests to maintain their diversity of plants and animals (biodiversity), their health and integrity, and to ensure their natural and cultural values are protected for current and future generations. To achieve this, forest management systems need to balance social, economic and culturally beneficial uses of forests, within ecological constraints, while maintaining options for the future.
Last updated: 28 September 2007
