2020-07-07 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                       7 JULY 2020


1.    Background, History and Current Status of the Yurol Ringtail Environmental Project

A.    Project history

This project has a long history and a complex structure reflecting the complicated nature of land
tenure and the number of parties involved. There have been quite a number of reports to Council
which set out the history, details of agreements entered into, environmental outcomes etc.

To assist the new Council, it is worth recapping each of these reports and providing links to them.
Before doing so, it is worthwhile understanding who the relevant parties are in the project.

There are multiple parties involved in this project including:

     HQPlantations (“HQP”)
      This is a planation timber company which holds Planation Licence Areas (PLAs) across
      Queensland including 1,492 ha in the Ringtail (879 ha) and Yurol (613 ha) Forest areas. The
      company is surrendering its PLA in these areas in exchange for compensation. HQP
      manages approximately 340,000 ha of forest throughout Queensland including both
      softwoods (pine) and hardwoods.

     Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (“DAF”)
      This Department has oversight (via its Forestry Division) of the State Government’s interest
      in both PLAs and State Forests that have timber extraction rights. In this project, it manages
      the contractual relationship with HQP in relation to the pine forest areas and also manages
      a range of contracts for hardwood forest areas. The current Minister is Minister Mark Furner.

     Department of Environment and Science (“DES”)
      This Department has policy and funding oversight of a range of environmental initiatives
      including decisions about acquiring conservation estate as well as being custodian and
      operator of National Parks in Queensland (QPWS). The current Minister is Minister Leeane
      Enoch.

     Noosa Parks Association (“NPA”)
      This is a not for profit community group based in Noosa incorporated under the Associations
      Incorporation Act. They have a range of objects including the protection of the natural
      environment in the greater Noosa - Cooloola region.

     Noosa Shire Council (“the Council”)
      The local government for the Shire of Noosa.

The concept of a broad scale environmental protection area in the hinterland has been around for
over 20 years. The “planets aligned” in early 2017 with indications that HQP would be open to
surrendering its Plantation License Areas and removing the remainder of its pine plantations.
Negotiations took place between the 5 parties during 2017, ultimately leading to the signing of a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in October 2017. The reason for having an MOU was that
the State government was coming into an election period and all parties wanted to get “in principle”
support for the project prior to any potential change of State government.

The CEO provided two reports to a Special Council meeting on 13 October 2017 which set out the
background to negotiations to that point, some information about the land and its tenure and details
of a proposed MOU (see attachment 1 to the “Further Report” below).




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