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About Plantations
Increasing the plantation timber resource to expand Australia's forest industries and offset the reduced access to native forest resource is a key forest policy objective of the National Forest Policy Statement, Regional Forest Agreements and Plantations for Australia: The 2020 Vision. The overarching principle of the 2020 Vision strategy is to enhance regional wealth creation and international competitiveness through a sustainable increase in Australia’s plantation resources. This is to be achieved through a notional target of trebling the area of commercial tree crops to 3 million hectares by 2020, using mainly private sector funding.
In parts of Australia, plantations yield up to 14 times more wood per hectare than native forests, largely due to plant selection and breeding, and the use of more intensive management techniques. Continued improvement of plantation stock in terms of wood quality, yield and disease resistance is expected in the future. Better silvicultural management is another major reason for increased wood yields, ensuring uniform, high-quality and cost-competitive timber products.
Plantations supplied over 66 per cent of the logs harvested in Australia in 2005-06. In 2003-04, plantation based industries employed over 70,000 people, largely in regional communities, and contributed around $13 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of this, plantation establishment and management provided employment for over 14,000 people and contributed around $850 million to national GDP. The benefits of plantations to regional communities were shown in research undertaken by the Bureau of Rural Sciences entitled, Socio-economic impacts of plantation forestry in the Great Southern region and Socio-economic impacts of plantation forestry in the South West Slopes of New South Wales.
Australia’s plantation processing industry comprises a number of large, internationally-competitive companies. In recent years the plantation processing sector has invested heavily in the development of modern efficient sawmills, reconstituted and engineered wood production facilities and best practice pulp mills. Continued development of plantations is necessary to support further investment in the plantation processing sector. This investment will assist in developing new export and value-adding industries, and contribute to regional economic development.
Plantations also offer important environmental benefits. Plantations, strategically placed in the landscape, are recognised for their importance for sustainable production and improved soil, water quality and salinity mitigation, carbon and biodiversity benefits. There is a substantial body of scientific and policy activity through major Australian Government programs that recognise, promote and evaluate the opportunities to achieve multiple objectives through revegetation and plantations. Key research in this area has been undertaken by the Bureau of Rural Sciences, and the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation.