Forest and Wood Products Australia has its work cut out trying to get the balance right in the way people think of the industry. Ric Sinclair, managing director of FWPA, told the Australian Forest Contractors Association annual conference in Coffs Harbour of the work his organization was doing and gave insights into Australian market perceptions of wood, wood products and the sustainability of forestry.
“When it comes to thinking about where Australia should be getting its wood, 64% of the market believes we shouldn’t be cutting down trees (whether that be from native forests or plantations) with 39% saying we should be getting our wood by importing it.
“The major problem facing the industry is that timber comes from trees and 79% of the market (particularly those in the age grouping of 18-34 – the future market for house construction) see cutting down trees as being bad for the environment.
“With 93% of the market understanding that trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen the basic concept of photosynthesis seems to be understood by everybody. However, when it comes to understanding what happens to the carbon component of the absorbed carbon dioxide, knowledge decreases markedly.”
Ric said that 71% of the market understood that carbon remained in the tree but only 50% understood this carbon stayed in the wood harvested from trees. Further, only 38% agreed that carbon is stored in wood used in building homes.
Against this background and uncertainty over carbon accounting practices in the future (CPRS policies, ETS legislation), Sinclair pointed to the real danger that the country may not be able to rely on the planting and replanting of production forests which are vital in reducing carbon in the atmosphere.
The FWPA has recently undertaken an audit of the education sector particularly with reference to information transfer and vocation issues. With some 9,500 schools in Australia and a highly fragmented approach to the subject across the school system, it would take considerable money to fund a schools program (based on experience in British Columbia, such a scheme would likely cost $5-15 million) and this is money the FWPA can’t afford from its budget.
Of major concern is that given the drop-off in enrolments, Forestry schools might disappear in Australia meaning we might not have new generations of foresters being trained. Further to that, student engineers are either no longer learning about wood use as part of university courses or it is forming a smaller part of the curriculum.
Given the industry is unlikely to recruit people from outside timber growing areas and the current push towards a national curriculum, the FWPA believes it will be up to the industry to implement schools programs.
Referring to the reaction of group of school kids aged 16-17 he took to a forest in the Scottsdale district he logged 65 years ago, Andy Padgett said that these students, who were all quite bright, were keen to see what the long term affect of harvesting was.
Their spokesperson asked at the end of the tour, “Why is it that our teachers teach us that what the forestry industry is doing is wrong when quite patently it’s not. You’ve only got to come up and look at this forest and you can see the forest industry is…not destroying forests, they are replacing a never ending resource.”
With funding for such education programs not being available in the FWPA budget, a national focus for school curricula and the importance of the subject seemingly concentrated in specific regional areas, it looks like it will continue to be up to the industry to conduct one-off activities such as the one described by Padgett.
Unless, of course, the general news media decides to take a real interest in portraying the facts about the Australian forestry industry and starts showing re-growth rather than recently logged forests in their stories.
More from the AFCA Conference and inaugural Hall of Fame function in the coming edition of Australian Forests & Timber News … out soon.
