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Tasmania: The RFA and the environment
The RFA provides major benefits for the environment with:
- A world class Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) Reserve System based on the nationally agreed reserve criteria (JANIS).
- The Tasmanian CAR Reserve System meets the JANIS reserve criteria as far as practicable on public land.
- The addition of 396,000 hectares of public land to existing reserves - an increase of 17 per cent. This brings the total reserve system to 2.7 million hectares, representing 40 per cent of Tasmania's total land area.
- 29 new areas of national parks and State reserves including:
- Savage River, Friendly Beaches and Tasman
- Beech Creek, Blakes Opening and some forest areas adjacent to the existing World Heritage Area will be added to Tasmania's current national parks and will be available for inclusion in the World Heritage Area.
- A $30 million Commonwealth program to support voluntary conservation agreements by private landowners , to protect forest on private land with high conservation values.
- Tasmania's commitment to further improve forest management across all agencies and land tenures through:
- Development and implementation of a Threatened Species Protection Strategy by December 1998 and a Tasmanian Biodiversity Strategy by December 1999.
- Statewide policies across all tenures on fire management, nature based tourism and recreation management, cultural heritage management and forest pest and disease management.
- Implementation of the State policy, Setting New Standards for Water Quality.
Threatened species and forest communities
Tasmanian forests are home to many threatened species of flora and fauna and include some threatened forest communities. The RFA establishes and maintains effective strategies to protect these species and communities, taking priorities into account.
Research for the RFA identified 170 species of flora and 59 species of fauna as priority species for protection. Under the RFA, they will be protected through management of the CAR reserve system or by applying relevant management prescriptions. Priority species requiring consideration are listed in Attachment 2 of the RFA.
By focussing attention on species in the comprehensive regional assessment, the RFA has accelerated the recovery process for a number of species. Two examples are the recovery plans developed for the Swift parrot and the giant freshwater lobster.
The Swift parrot breeds in Tasmania in summer, migrating to the mainland for the winter, predominantly in the box-ironbark woodlands of inland Victoria and New South Wales. The giant freshwater lobster is a Tasmanian endemic species and the first invertebrate species to be listed under the Commonwealth Endangered Species Act. Forest cover is critical to its survival as it maintains the desired water temperature for its habitat.
Recovery action has been initiated for a number of threatened forest plants with the formation of a ‘multi-species’ recovery team. Work began as part of the RFA and a project was established to include both nationally listed and State listed species which often occur in the same habitats.
World Heritage
Native forests cover more than a third of the 1.38 million hectares of Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage areas.
As part of the Comprehensive Regional Assessment for the RFA, an expert panel identified areas of potential World Heritage values. Many of these areas and those identified in previous reports are now in the Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative (CAR) Reserve System established by the RFA.
The governments agree that any additional nominations to World Heritage in Tasmania will come from the dedicated reserves of the CAR Reserve system. The Commonwealth agrees that any World Heritage nomination of places in Tasmania will give full consideration to potential social and economic consequences and will only occur after the fullest consultation and with the agreement of the Tasmanian State Government.
Forest community and Old-growth reservation in the CAR reserve system on Public Land 
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