Seven timber producers have received a share in $70 million of federal grants to expand Australia's plantation estate.
Key points:
- The grants will roll out over four years
- It's part of a larger $70 million scheme to expand Australia's timber plantation estate
- The funding will increase the supply of locally produced timber for the construction industry
The federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s director of plantations and strategy, Luke Bulkeley said the Support Plantation Establishment program would contribute to Australia meeting its carbon emission reduction targets.
"Trees as they grow, sequester CO2 from the atmosphere so this scheme will certainly play a role," he said.
As well as contributing to Australia's carbon emission reduction targets, the program aims to supply timber to the construction industry and help to reduce reliance on overseas products.
Australia's plantation estate was badly affected by the Black Summer bushfires of 2019–20.
About 55,000 hectares of trees were burnt, although 42 per cent of that resource has been salvaged.
The initial $3.2 million in grants will go towards establishing seven plantation forests across New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland.
Diversifying assets
Shaun Tamplin, who runs a farming operation on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, is one of the scheme's recipients.
"It essentially provides enough funds to get us started with the plantation," Mr Tamplin said.
"It's fantastic, we really appreciate it."
Mr Tamplin had already diversified his business, by dedicating 400 acres of cleared land on his Bunyah property for grazing.
He plans to allocate the parts of his land not suitable for grazing to the timber plantations.
Mr Tamplin said it was important for Australia to increase the plantation estate to reduce industry reliance on less-sustainable products from overseas.
"We have much stricter environmental controls here than in places such as South-east Asia, and as a result environmentally Australian timber is of much higher value," he said.
Industry recovers from bushfires
Following the Black Summer bushfires, timber companies experienced a boom to salvage and stockpile recovered logs.
In south west NSW, plantation timber industry body Softwood Working Group said it had worked to recover as much as possible of the damaged resource.
The group's Carlie Porteus said what it had achieved to date was quite a feat.
"The collective effort to research how to manage that wood, how to process that wood, how to recover that wood needs to be applauded," Mr Porteus said.
But the industry believes it could take 12 years to replace the trees that were lost.
Mel Mylek from the University of Canberra said that presented a big challenge to timber businesses, as they would have to source timber from other areas.
"Sixty-four per cent of the sector were stressed financially and many are still struggling with recovery after the fires," Dr Mylek said.
Plantation timber for a sustainable future
Australia is one of many nations that has pledged to grow more plantation timber to provide sustainable material for the construction industry.
The total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by forestry operations to produce a given volume of logs is, on average, equivalent to 3.2 per cent for softwoods and 7.3 per cent for hardwoods.
World Wide Fund for Nature Australia conservation scientist Stuart Blanch said while $70 million to expand Australia's plantation estate was "a good start", it did not go far enough.
"That $70 million investment, probably needs to be $700 million," he said.
"Particularly if the federal and state governments want to expand hardwood plantations by buying cleared farm country."
Dr Blanch said more funding was needed to support the industry to transition to more sustainable practices.
"It's very expensive and the economics just don't stack up without more support from government or a strong carbon and biodiversity credits market," he said.