For 25 years, forestry operations undertaken in accordance with a Regional Forestry Agreement (RFA) or in an ‘RFA Region’ have been exempted from needing approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) .
However, an end date for this exemption has now been set. Following significant concerns that RFAs were not achieving required environmental outcomes, including findings by the 2020 Samuel Review, reforms to the EPBC Act passed at the end of 2025 included changes that mean RFA operations will be subject to EPBC Act approval processes from 1 July 2027.
The reforms also include changes to various pathways through which RFA operations could be regulated after the exemption discontinues. This includes individual project approval, bilateral agreements, strategic assessments and bioregional planning, and new environmental safeguards that apply to these pathways. These safeguards include the power to create new National Environmental Standards which may apply to these new pathways.