Sustainability Charter - doing things differently!

Back in the 1990s, when Forestry Tasmania was first corporatised, its priorities were very much geared towards making a profit and generating jobs and wealth for the community.


The Ten Year Growth Plan developed in 1998 reflected those priorities, with a strong emphasis on encouraging downstream processing of our timber resource.

Ten years on, the Ten Year Growth Plan is being replaced with the Sustainability Charter - a charter committing Forestry Tasmania to environmental stewardship of our forests as well as jobs and downstream processing.

The Sustainability Charter is a more complex document - reflecting the increased complexity of managing forests for all values - economic, social and environmental.

A draft of the Sustainability Charter was released in December 2007 and exhibited for 60 days to allow public comment. Those public submissions have been incorporated into the plan, which is now with the Minister responsible for forests for consideration.


Forestry Tasmania has five key sustainability objectives in relation to state forest;

• Sustaining biodiversity and habitat
• Sustaining jobs for future generations
• Sustaining carbon stores, clean air, water and healthy forests
• Sustaining community access and heritage
• Sustaining science based stewardship

For each of these objectives, Forestry Tasmania has developed strategic aims that will guide its forest management for at least the next 10 years.

Under the Charter, Forestry Tasmania will develop annual targets and work programs
aligned with the strategic aims and will report on them and performance outcomes in annual Sustainable Forest Management reports.

Click here to view the Sustainability Charter - [PDF - 1900kb]

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