Forest defenders in NSW have lost what they hoped would be a landmark challenge against one such agreement that governs logging across four million hectares of native forest from Sydney to the Queensland border.
The loss has been welcomed by the timber industry, which feared the case could spark a shutdown of hardwood harvesting and major job losses.
The area covered by the agreement includes prime habitat for koalas and other endangered animals. (HANDOUT/FRIENDS OF THE KOALA)
Lawyers for the North East Forest Alliance argued the regional forestry agreement between the Commonwealth and NSW governments shouldn't have been renewed in 2018 without being subject to assessment and approval provisions enshrined in federal environment laws.
They said the agreement was renewed for a further 20 years without due regard for contemporary issues, including climate change and native species that have declined to the point of being vulnerable to extinction.
The area covered by the North East Regional Forestry Agreement includes prime habitat for koalas, greater gliders, and spot-tailed quoll which weren't endangered when the initial agreement was inked in 2000, but are now.
The region was also ravaged by the Black Summer fires, which Australian scientists have linked to climate change.
But the challenge against the validity of the extended agreement was dismissed by Federal Court Justice Melissa Perry on Wednesday.
She said there was no requirement for such an assessment before the agreement was extended.
The region was ravaged by the Black Summer fires, which scientists have linked to climate change. (James Gourley/AAP PHOTOS)
"That requirement applies only where the parties enter into an RFA," she said.
She also found there was "no implicit requirement that an assessment must be sufficiently evaluative and reasonably contemporaneous" to satisfy the definition of a regional forestry agreement.
"A regional forestry agreement provides an alternative mechanism by which the objects of the (federal) Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act can be achieved by way of an intergovernmental agreement," Justice Perry said.
She said the forestry agreement allocated responsibility for matters of national environmental significance to the state of NSW.
"As such, the question of whether or not to enter into or vary an intergovernmental agreement of this nature is essentially a political one."
North East Forest Alliance president Dailan Pugh said it was shocking to know governments could extend logging agreements without new forest health checks.
"I find that extremely troubling. In this case, the agreement was based on work done in 1997 and it was meant to be for 20 years," he told AAP.
The timber industry said the court vindicated sustainable native forestry operations in NSW. (HANDOUT/SUPPLIED)
"But after 20 years, rather than do a new regional forest agreement, they just extended the existing one. We now have climate change wreaking havoc, the situation has changed dramatically yet none of that is relevant."
The alliance and other environment groups say it's past time for federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to fix things.
Ms Plibersek is on leave and her office directed inquiries to federal Forestry Minister Murray Watt. AAP has asked him for comment.
The Australian Forest Products Association said the court outcome was a "vindication that sustainable native forestry operations in NSW are well governed" under the existing federal-state framework.
"It's also a message to activists that the RFA framework stands, and the native forestry sector has a right to operate without their irresponsible legal meddling in the daily lives of timber workers and their families," said James Jooste, the CEO of the NSW chapter.
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