Failings of the Audit of Native Forests on Public Land
DSE takes over the audit process for logging of native forests and ERM is appointed to design the audit methodology
Environmental Resources Management Australia (ERM) have been engaged by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to re-design the 2010 Audit of native forests on public land. After a meeting with DSE and ERM last month Myenvironment Inc are keen to find out what the ministerial decision actually was in relation to the recommendations put forward by SKM for the audit program (Myenvironemnt Inc also made some suggestions to government on the recommendations) i.e. which options were chosen from the SKM recommendations and what are the terms of reference for the future audits? This will be pivotal in the design of the audit. In the meantime there are still concerns; Read more
Forest Audit Program Review v’s Current Salvage Logging by DSE
Myenvironment Inc (formally The Central Highlands Alliance Inc) would like to congratulate the Government, the Environment Protection Authority, and Sinclair Knight Merz on the recent forest audit program review conducted in 2008. Myenvironment Inc submitted material for the review and participated in focus groups. We found the auditors from SKM to be professional in their approach and willing to take the time to understand the issues that were presented.
SKM Forest Audit Review - Final report and recommendations
Recommendation
It is recommended that the Forest Audit program should continue and that key features such as its independence, the provision of opportunities for stakeholder participation and public reporting of audit results be retained. It is recommended then that the current form of the program be replaced by Option 3, which would see the program’s scope extended to include compliance with the planning elements of the Code, relevant sections of the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land and with regulatory and legislative requirements relating to sustainable forest management. It is recommended that the program would continue to be conducted as a statutory Environmental Audit under section 53V of the Environment Protection Act (1970) to ensure the process is independent and maintain the perception of such by stakeholders.
Feedback to SKM on the Review of EPA Audit
The Central Highland Alliances final recommendations to the consultancy SKM who were employed by the EPA to review their audit performance and provide recommendations to government on possible paths forward.