There are compelling reasons to encourage the employment of Indigenous Australians in the forestry sector. The benefits of, and constraints to, Indigenous employment in the sector were examined using a case study approach focused on Indigenous participation in 'Operation Farm Clear', an emergency response following Cyclone Larry in northern Queensland in 2006. The findings suggested that, given a supportive environment, there are opportunities for Indigenous people to benefit from employment in the forestry sector. These benefits included skill development and increased confidence, the opportunity for employment and participation in land management. The findings also highlighted constraints that could limit the delivery of these benefits. Constraints included an insufficient level of relevant skill or experience, lack of a supportive environment, the difficulty of balancing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, and limitations related to the nature of the forestry sector. In the case study, the most important factors for the realisation of benefits were the provision of long-term support and opportunities for ongoing training and employment, and the peer support provided by other Indigenous employees.

Social impacts resulting from policy changes and other interventions interact and aggregate, and are influenced by additional interventions and exogenous factors, leading to cumulative social impacts. We explored these complex impacts through a case study of forest policy changes introduced in the state of Western Australia between 1999 and 2004. In this process, we both drew on and modified the recently-proposed Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management (CEAM) framework, to improve its utility as an analytical tool for exploring cumulative social impacts that arise from policy changes in natural resource sectors. Our findings highlight the complexity of the pathways that lead to social impacts and the significant influence of individuals' responses. The findings also demonstrate the importance of considering cumulative impactsnegative and positive, and intended and unintended -when designing and implementing mitigation strategies, emphasizing the value of adaptive management approaches. Our results suggest that the CEAM framework, appropriately contextualized and adapted, is relevant to the assessment of social impacts associated with interventions in complex natural resource management cases, and probably more widely.

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In many countries, timber harvesting from natural forests is accompanied by social conflict that governments seek to mitigate, often through the introduction of policy changes that reduce the forest industry's access to natural forest wood. Forest policy changes often have important implications for businesses and workers dependent on forest resources; however, the social impacts of such changes remain relatively unexplored. We conducted an ex post facto assessment of social impacts experienced by members of the forest industry in the Australian state of Western Australia following the introduction of three forest policy changes between 1999 and 2004. Results indicate that the process by which forest policy decisions were made, the nature of the resulting policy changes, and the actions people took in response, together contributed to three key negative social impacts: uncertainty, a perception of injustice, and financial stress. These impacts in turn led to diminished perceptions of industry security, thus discouraging business owners from investing in the industry, rather than encouraging investment, which was a key goal of the forest policy changes. The results highlight the importance of recognizing, avoiding and mitigating negative social impacts associated with policy changes, as these impacts can hinder the realization of policy goals.