The Jindivick Dialogue
In November 2024, we held our fifth Gippsland Forest Dialogue in Jindivick, bringing together 25 people, mostly West Gippsland residents to discuss the future of recreation in our State Forests. The event was chaired by Gippslanders and facilitated by the advisory committee of Gippsland Forest Dialogue.
The dialogue approach allows diverse voices to come together to discuss, share information and perspectives, and consider solutions to complex problems in a way that is safe and constructive for all participants.
The dialogue considered opportunities and challenges of recreation in Gippsland's forests during a time of uncertainty about land management, tenure and the future use of forests.
To give Dialogue participants a baseline understanding of the elements that influence and shape the forests, a scoping paper was prepared.
During the Dialogue, participants undertook open discussion, a walk in local forest and breakout sessions to explore themes and report back. The dialogue was a one-day event to introduce and scope out the issues and themes relevant to recreation with an expectation of a second more expansive dialogue to further explore the outcomes and discussion from this event. It is expected this follow up dialogue will occur in late 2025.
“The Gippsland Forest Dialogue report was submitted to the Government's Great Outdoors committee as input to their considerations on the future of forests and recreation.”
The aims of the GFD Recreation Dialogue were to:
- Build a collective understanding of stakeholder perspectives, priorities and concerns, areas of agreement and disagreement, and knowledge gaps relating to recreation in Gippsland's forests;
- Foster collaboration among stakeholders, allowing forest managers, community members, conservationists, policy makers, academics, and other interested parties to learn from one another, trust each other, and synthesise current knowledge; and,
- Co-create an actionable plan for an extended dialogue related to recreation that presents a path forward to mobilise stakeholder networks and advocate and influence positive changes for our forests and forest users.
The Dialogue Co-chairs then gathered these discussions, analysis and debate into a, which as well as informing a second extended dialogue, was submitted to the Great Outdoors Taskforce consultation process as a collective view of a diverse group of Gippsland residents. This fascinating and insightful process will fuel a second dialogue in late 2025 on Forest recreation.
