A recently commissioned expert report into the regulation of Tasmania’s forests & forests industry, ‘Levelling the playing field: Reforming Forestry governance in Tasmania’ has found that Tasmania’s forestry governance environment is a tilted playing field which favours extractive logging of State forests at the expense of conservation, tourism and community interests.

At the legal and regulatory level, the report found that the web of exemptions and special legislation surrounding forestry creates an impression among many of one law for forestry and another law for everyone else. The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at fixing this problem, such as the re-
structuring of Forestry Tasmania, and is seeking public comment.

A lunch-time forum with the report author and others with expertise in the field, provides an important opportunity for members of the public to discuss this issue, ask questions, raise concerns, and provide invaluable information.