The Victorian Forestry Roundtable Meeting: a discussion of transitions to sustainability in Victorian forests

Summary A Forestry Roundtable Meeting was convened at Marysville in Central Victoria in August—September 2002 to explore issues associated with improvement of the management of Victoria's montane ash forests. Representatives were invited from government agencies, timber interests and conservation groups. In addition, scientists from Australian and overseas academic institutions attended. The aims of the meeting were to: (a) provide a forum for stakeholders to engage in constructive dialogue about approaches to forest management, water production, and biodiversity conservation in the Central Highlands of Victoria, and (b) highlight to stakeholders that resource management issues faced in the Central Highlands of Victoria have been faced in forests elsewhere in the world and by other resource sectors in Australia. Many valuable insights emerged from the Forestry Roundtable Meeting. Three major issues emerged from the meeting and are discussed in this paper. (1) There was considerable stakeholder dissatisfac...