The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) this week released a new edition of one of the most popular Australian forestry publications.
ABARES executive director Karen Schneider said ‘Australia’s forests at a glance 2014’ is a pocketbook compendium of data and information about Australia’s native forests and timber plantations.
“The pocketbook covers Australia’s forest types, areas and how native forests are conserved and managed” Schneider said.
“It also includes latest harvesting, production and consumption information.”
Australia has 124.7 million hectares of forest – both native and industrial plantations.
Of Australia’s native forest, 36.6 million ha are available and suitable for commercial wood production.
There are 39.2 million ha of native forest protected for biodiversity conservation, of which 26.4 million ha (21 per cent of Australia’s forest) are in the National Reserve System, well above international targets.
In 2012-13 there were 2 million ha of industrial plantations in Australia consisting of 1,023,800 ha of softwood species and 976,400 ha of hardwood species.
The total logs harvested were 22.8 million cubic metres from Australian forests, of which about 3.9 million cubic metres of logs were harvested from native forests.
The total logs harvested from industrial plantation forests in 2012–13 increased by 1.2 per cent from 2011-12, to 18.9 million cubic metres.
An increase in the harvest of hardwood plantation logs offset a slight decrease in the harvest of softwood plantation logs.
“Australia’s forests at a glance 2014 complements a suite of ABARES publications that aim to provide a comprehensive profile and outlook for Australia’s forestry and forest products manufacturing sectors,” Schneider said.
For a copy or to view other detailed reports produced by ABARES visit www.abares.gov.au/publications
