NSW Forestry Corporation says the recent auction of 24 beekeeping sites in state forests in the Batemans Bay region was a trial designed to increase the equity and transparency of the allocation process.
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A Forestry spokeswoman said the corporation was conscious of the need for a system which achieved fair market value for the sale of the sites, which were a public resource.
“An auction provides all interested beekeepers with the same information about vacant sites at the same time and gives all parties an equal opportunity to bid for the vacant sites at a rate they consider to be fair,” the spokeswoman said.
“The trial was held to allow us to consider whether the auction system does in fact deliver a more transparent and equitable process and assess whether we are achieving fair market value for the sale of the resource.
“Forestry Corporation will need to take some time to fully review the implications of the auction results and discuss them with industry representatives,” the spokeswoman said.
She said this would be in tandem with a policy review, which Forestry had been discussing with the NSW Apiarists Association since 2012, expected to be finalised within the next 12 months.
The spokeswoman said a ballot and first-come first-served system had previously been used to allocate apiary permits on state forests.
“Forestry Corporation is not fully satisfied either of these systems is the most transparent or equitable way to allocate these permits and neither provided an opportunity to assess whether fair market value was achieved,” she said.
She said the recent trial was not a change of policy.
“Forestry Corporation values its relationship with the NSW Apiarists Association and has met and spoken with them on several occasions over the past nine months to discuss improvements to apiary permit administration on state forests,” she said.
“The potential use of auctions to allocate apiary ranges has been flagged in conversations dating back to 2013 and Forestry Corporation will continue to discuss the outcome of the trial and other relevant matters with them over the coming months.”
The spokeswoman said all revenue from commercial access to natural resources on state forests contributed to recouping administrative and operational costs of forest management “as well as dividend and other payments to government”.
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