The areas of public native forest that are set aside for conservation and those that are managed for multiple uses including renewable timber production have been identified through the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process, which is managed by the State and Commonwealth Governments and reviewed every five years. Under the RFAs, the majority of public forests in NSW are permanently set aside for conservation, in the formal national park estate and through permanent protection of high conservation value areas in State forests including rainforest and old growth forests, wetlands and riparian zones, threatened ecological communities, ridge and headwater habitat and rocky outcrops.

Operations in native State forests in the costal areas of NSW are regulated by the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval (CIFOA). The CIFOA is a detailed regulation that was designed with the input of expert scientific panels to manage ongoing timber harvesting while maintaining multi-aged forest as well as undisturbed areas of habitat across the State forest estate.

The CIFOA sets out:

• administrative requirements
• planning conditions
• operational conditions
• mapping requirements
• regeneration requirements
• monitoring conditions.

One of the requirements under the CIFOA is to distribute timber harvesting operations across the landscape and over time to ensure that any potential cumulative impacts from forestry operations are avoided. Forestry Corporation meets this requirement through its detailed planning process, which includes long-term, tactical and operational planning.

Long-term planning

Forests are managed to be harvested and regrown in perpetuity and timber supply is projected over a 100-year period to ensure an ongoing sustainable yield.  Forestry Corporation sells timber to more than 50 local customers spread over the four CIFOA sub-regions, primarily under long-term wood supply agreements. These agreements are informed by the sustainable yield model, which is carefully calculated to project the sustainable level supply of timber and wood products from each geographic supply zone over the next 100-years. The commercial contracts for harvesting, haulage and sale of timber align with geographic supply zones and refer to the sustainable supply levels.

Tactical planning

Tactical planning is carried out three to five years prior to any operation. Tactical planning identifies which specific compartments have suitable timber for harvesting in the coming years, while ensuring that operations are spread across the CIFOA and not concentrated in any sub-region. The tactical planning process informs where the more detailed operational planning should commence.

Operational planning

Detailed harvest plans are developed for each individual operation. To prepare these plans, a team of trained and professional staff must carry out multiple surveys, data analysis and desktop assessments as well as stakeholder consultation. It can take around 12-18 months to develop a comprehensive plan for an operation.

Once the operational plan has been developed and approved, the plan will be published on the Plan Portal. The operation will then be scheduled. Scheduling is highly variable and is based on the type of operation, local harvest crew configuration and availability, timber species availability and weather.

Annual plan of operations

Forestry Corporation publishes an annual plan of operations to provide early advice about the location, timing and duration of forestry operations proposed over the coming year.

This annual plan is available via the Plan Portal. The annual plan of operations is maintained as a live plan that is continually updated to ensure stakeholders always have an up-to-date forward projection of where operations are proposed over the coming year. The annual plan and associated map show the dispersal of operations across the CIFOA area.