Download your FREE guide to Forestry Investment here
The forestry industry says plantations can't keep pace, writes Philip Hopkins of The Sydney Morning Herald
AUSTRALIA faces a shortage of home-grown wood products for its residential and commercial building needs, particularly as the population grows strongly, according to the nation's forestry industry.
Allan Hansard, chief executive of the newly formed Australian Forest Products Association, said that to prevent this scenario, the industry wanted a plan that delivered resource and investment security for the plantation and native forest sectors. The AFPA was formed through the merger of the National Association of Forest Industries and the Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council.
''These issues strongly influence the investment in domestic downstream processing,'' he told the House of Representatives standing committee inquiry into the Australian forestry industry. The warning comes against the background of Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Mr Hansard told the committee that short-term issues included the fallout from the global financial crisis, the historically high currency, the collapse of several plantation companies, and contraction in export demand.
Key long-term issues included a declining softwood resource, decreasing international competitiveness from lack of scale in plantation resources, and worsening resource security issues for the native forest processing sector. The last was exacerbated by continued pressure from environmental groups.
''The situation in Tasmania is an example of how these short-term issues have affected the forest industries,'' he said.
Under the Tasmanian ''peace deal'', native forest harvesting is to be curtailed and greater reliance placed on plantations. About 400,000 cubic metres of sawlogs are now sourced from Tasmania's native forests - 300,000 cubic metres from Forestry Tasmania, and the rest from private native forests.
The timber, widely used in residential and commercial construction and furniture, includes Tasmanian oak, blackwood, myrtle, sassafras, celery top, and huon pine.
The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, in a submission to the inquiry, emphasised the importance of secure access to the existing or an expanded state native forest estate.
''With no access to our native forest, we would lose an essential resource for our crafts peoples, we would lose expertise … with no native forest access, Australia would become dependent on imported timbers,'' the association said.
It was previously believed plantations could supply this resource. ''It is now known that Tasmanian plantation logs are not suitable for appearance-grade products or products which need high specific density,'' the association said.
''The shortest estimated … time for plantations to provide high-quality sawlogs is 40 years for eucalypt species.'' Unique Tasmanian species such as huon pine, myrtle, sassafras, celery top pine and king billy pine can't be grown in plantations.
These concerns were backed by the Forests and Forest Industry Council of Tasmania, which represents a cross-section of forestry-related interests, such as contractors, sawmillers, beekeepers, indigenous groups, recreational users, furniture manufacturers and private forest growers.
''While uninformed academics and others who do not understand the nature of wood may argue that Australia's total timber needs can be met from plantations, plantation grown logs are not a direct substitute for logs from native forests,'' the council said. Also, ''large scale conversion of land (in Tasmania) for plantations is not sustainable'', it said.
Download your FREE guide to Forestry Investment here
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/chips-down-for-australias-timber-stock-20110531-1fej7.html#ixzz1O22CJMM1