A SWATHE of native forest set down for permanent protection in reserves will be opened for future logging, the State Government has confirmed.

As reported in today’s The Australian, about 400,000ha of native forest with high conservation value will be made available for harvesting after a six year deferral.

The State Government is due to make an announcement about the policy this afternoon.

According to the report in The Australian’s, logging the area will be deferred so as not to threaten a bid by Forestry Tasmania to achieve certification from the Forest Stewardship Council.

FSC certification is important to environmentally-conscious international buyers of Tasmanian timber.

When State Parliament resumes next month, repealing the Tasmanian Forest Agreement and its 504,000ha of agreed reserves will be one of the new State Government’s top priorities.

The need to log the forest contained within the 400,000ha would be assessed according to future demand and it would only be opened for harvesting of special timbers, The Australian reported.