Plantation forestry

Australian Forest Products Association represent the biosecurity interests of the plantation timber industry. They are members of Plant Health Australia and signatories to the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed. Their responsibilities include:

• biosecurity planning and implementation at the national and farm levels
• liaising with federal and state governments on trade issues
• funding and supporting biosecurity initiatives
• participating in national committees and response efforts in an emergency.

Industry overview

In 2017–18, plantation forestry production was valued at $2.3 billion (LVP),23 with wood product exports valued at $3.6 billion. The forest, wood and paper products sector is Australia’s sixth largest manufacturing industry.

Australia is the seventh most forested country in the world, with 131 million hectares of native forest on public and private land and two million hectares of plantation forestry.

Of this native forest, only 100,000 hectares is harvested for timber annually (less than 0.06 per cent of Australia’s total native forests). All native forest harvested is sustainably regrown, with the regrowth quickly becoming an abundant food source and habitat for native species.

Plantation species are split almost evenly between softwood and hardwood plantations.

Softwood plantations are predominately long rotation (from 28 to 40 years) and produce logs for a range of products including structural timber for housing, appearance grade sawn timber, wood-based panels, engineered wood products, paper and paperboard. The majority of softwood grown in Australia is Pinus radiata, which is the dominant species in SA, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. P. elliottii and P. caribaea are grown in Queensland and northern NSW, and P. pinaster is grown in WA. There is also a notable area (around 50,000 hectares) of native hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) in the south-east of Queensland and northern NSW.

Hardwood plantations include short rotation eucalypt species (eight to 12 years) grown for woodchips to be made into tissue, paper and paperboard products, and around 10 per cent are long rotation species, producing logs for a range of products including appearance grade sawn timber and structural timber for housing.

There are also some small plantings of Acacia mangium, African mahogany and sandalwood grown in the NT and northern WA.

Of the 36.6 million hectares of native forest both available and suitable for commercial wood production, 7.5 million hectares is multiple-use public forests. The remainder is in leasehold and private forests. Multiple-use native forests are managed by state government departments or agencies in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, WA and Tasmania and are defined as crown land managed for a range of values including wood harvesting, water supply, conservation, recreation and environmental protection.

Currently, a funding partnership between the Department of Agriculture and the Australian Forest Products Association is being used to establish a National Forest Biosecurity Surveillance Program. The initiative is being managed by PHA through the National Forest Biosecurity Coordinator.

The forestry industry developed the plantation forest biosecurity plan, the Biosecurity Manual for the Plantation Timber Industry and the National Forest Biosecurity Surveillance Strategy 2018–23.