Hundreds of social and economic impacts of forestry could potentially be monitored over time, including the impacts of the forest industry on human wellbeing, employment, local and regional economies, and other aspects of social and economic life in Australia. Each of these categories can be ‘unpacked’ to examine many different types of indicators. For example, monitoring employment impacts might involve the use of any of the following different indicators:
- Quantity of employment: How many jobs? How many jobs in local versus regional centres? How many jobs during different times of year or rotation? How many jobs per unit area of plantation or native forest or harvested timber?
- Quality of employment: How many casual, part-time and full-time jobs? How does this compare to other industries? How satisfied are forestry workers with their employment? Average income of employees?
- Comparative employment: How many jobs are generated by forestry versus alternative uses for the same land? and/or
- Characteristics of the workforce: Gender distribution, age distribution, educational qualification and skills attainment.
To identify which social and economic impacts are of highest priority, current Federal and state government policies, recent media articles discussing issues related to forestry in Australia, and research documenting perceptions of different groups about forestry were reviewed. Table 6 briefly reviews key information needs about social and economic impacts, as identified from these varied sources.
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Policy, public debate topic |
Description and key information needs |
|---|---|
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Montreal process |
Criteria 6: Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socio-economic benefits to meet the needs of society requires collection of socio-economic data. The 19 socio-economic indicators for Criteria 6 of the Montreal Process require social and economic information on a wide range of topics relating to production and consumption, recreation and tourism, investment in the forest sector, cultural social and spiritual needs and values, and employment and community needs. See Appendix 1 for full list. |
|
Regional Forest Agreements |
The objectives of the Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs) include aiming to ‘maintain heritage and social values’ and to produce decisions that ‘meet the requirements of the governments involved, the community and industry and are consistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development’. These principles require information on social and economic impacts of forestry in Australia (http://www.daff.gov.au/rfa/about/process/introduction). As part of the RFA process, Brooks et al. (2001) developed a recommended methodology for undertaking social assessments. Their recommendations are summarised in Appendix 2, and focus on identifying features that may indicate a community’s increasing vulnerability to change; or decreasing viability and adaptability. This is argued to help in prediction of likely impacts of changes in the forest industry. |
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Plantations for Australia: the 2020 Vision |
The 2020 Vision has an overarching goal of enhancing regional wealth creation and international competitiveness through a sustainable increase in Australia’s plantation resources, based on a notional target of trebling the area of commercial tree crops by 2020. Key social and economic information needs identified in the policy include:
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National Forest Policy Statement (enacted largely via RFAs) |
The National Forest Policy Statement outlines objectives and policies underlying the future of Australia’s public and private forests, as agreed upon by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments. The Statement includes eleven goals to guide the use of the forest estate and ensure that the community obtains a balanced return from all forest uses. Social and economic information required to measure outcomes includes:
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National Indigenous Forest Strategy
|
The National Indigenous Forest Strategy aims to encourage Indigenous Australians to become more involved in forestry activities. Monitoring the success of the strategy involves the collection of information on Indigenous communities, and the involvement of Indigenous people in the forest industry and wider community, including:
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National Principles Related to Wood Production in Plantations |
The National Principles provide a framework in which to expand Australia’s commercial plantations. Monitoring requires social and economic information on:
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Public debates over plantation expansion in Australia (drawn from review in Schirmer et al. 2005a,b) |
Public debate related to plantation forestry includes many questions about the social and economic impacts of plantations. Themes commonly raised in the public debate, and information required to assess these themes can be summarised as:
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|
Public debates over native forestry in Australia (based on review of NAFI media articles on native forestry: Sept 2007-April 2008). |
Public debate about native forestry in Australia also includes many questions about the social and economic impacts of alternative uses of native forests, and of changes to these uses. Key issues raised indicate that information is required concerning:
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Based on the information in Table 6, key social and economic issues on which information is needed for Australian forests and forestry are described in Table 7. Many of these issues have been examined in academic and consultancy reports in recent years. These reports were reviewed as part of this consultancy to identify the topics studied and methods used to measure social and economic change. Appendix 3 contains a summary of the social and economic impacts that have been studied, and the methods used to study them.
|
Impacts of forestry |
Required information to measure impacts |
|---|---|
|
Social characteristics of forestry dependent communities
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Characteristics of the forest industry |
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Employment in industries dependent on forestry |
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Economic value of the forest industry to the:
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Perceptions and uses of and values and attitudes held about forests and forestry
|
A wide range of questions can be asked about people’s perceptions and uses of forests, and their values and attitudes about appropriate use of different types of forest. These may relate to perceptions about how forests are used, acceptability and desirability of different practices, impacts of forestry, and current and planned future uses of forests, amongst others. |
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Impact of the forest industry on local and regional communities |
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Values and impacts of for Indigenous people |
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Some of the social and economic impacts listed in Table 7 can be readily examined by monitoring indicators of social and economic impact over time. Others cannot be examined in this way, and can only be understood through more in-depth studies, which can be undertaken less regularly than the monitoring of indicators.