The Forest Products Commission (FPC) proposes to undertake commercial harvesting of wild sandalwood from Crown land at a rate of up to 2500 tonnes per year for a period of ten years between 2016 and 2026 pursuant to annual licences granted under the Sandalwood Act 1929.
This proposal was originally referred by the Wilderness Society in January 2016. Forest Products Commission subsequently provided a referral of the proposal in June 2016. Both of these referrals are provided for review as a part of this consultation.
At this initial stage of the EIA process, comment is simply sought on whether or not the EPA should assess a proposal and, if so, what level of assessment is considered appropriate.
The following diagram shows the stage this referral is at:
Following the seven day public comment period and consideration of any comments received, the EPA will decide whether or not this proposal requires environmental impact assessment and, if so, what level of assessment will be applied.
The Chairman's decisions on level of assessment are released each Monday on the EPA's website.
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