The operation of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: second report

This report focuses on the effectiveness of Regional Forest Agreements in protecting conservation values, with the majority of committee members support a strengthened system.

The proposals in the report would increase the scrutiny of forestry operations conducted under RFAs, either by limiting the exemptions available to forestry operations conducted under an RFA or requiring forestry operations to be assessed, to some extent, to determine whether those actions are compliant with the terms of the relevant RFA and/or the requirements of the EPBC Act more broadly.

The Greens senator on committee advocates further reforms and the Coalition senators oppose the main thrust of the report.