Resolving production-environment conflicts: the case of the Regional Forest Agreement Process in Australia

This paper evaluates the development of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) as a means of reducing timber production-environment conflicts in Australia, with particular reference to the development of the Regional Forest Agreement in Northeast Victoria. Regional Forest Agreements are formal legal agreements between federal and state governments. The processes associated with their production have a number of innovative features from a social perspective, but the economic analysis associated with their production fails to put any value on the non-market values associated with native forests. The processes involved in the production of Regional Forest Agreements may result in economic benefit through local capacity building and conflict resolution amongst different stakeholders. However, there may be a gap between the intention and the outcome, in that RFAs have in some cases polarised and exacerbated conflicts.