Australia’s forest industries have welcomed the Federal Government’s commitment to drive progress on the Billion Trees Plan launched in 2018 through concerted collaboration with state and territory jurisdictions. Source: Timberbiz
In an address to AFPA’s National Forest Industries Symposium, Federal Assistant Minister for Forestry, Senator Jonno Duniam, outlined his commitment to work more closely with state and territory governments to deliver the Commonwealth’s 2030 goal to grow Australia’s timber plantation estate by one billion trees.
“I intend to convene a meeting with my state and territory counterparts to get sign up to this goal, to find out exactly what it is, they are intending to do to achieve this goal,” he said.
“We’ve got nine years to achieve it, we will achieve it, I’m committed to that.”
Australian Forest Products Association CEO Ross Hampton welcomed Senator Duniam’s efforts to drive greater collaboration with the states and territories to achieve the Billion Trees Plan.
“Australia is currently experiencing significant production timber supply constraints as a result of the housing construction boom and a sharp decline in timber imports,” he said.
“If we don’t get more trees in the ground as soon as possible we can expect to see more frequent and severe timber supply constraints.
“As AFPA has often highlighted, historically all of Australia’s plantation expansion has occurred through federal-state government programs as a result of COAG-level efforts to be more self-sufficient in our housing timber needs,” Mr Hampton said.
