Getting trees in the ground will remain the focus of the timber industry as the Forest Industry Advisory Council hosted its first meeting at Wulanda Recreation Centre in Mount Gambier. Source: Border Watch
The membership of the advisory council was expanded following the election of the current government and has senior representatives from a wide range of organisations.
Despite not being a part of the council, South Australian Forest Products Association chief executive officer Nathan Paine sat in on the meeting.
Mr Paine said securing enough trees for future supply was at the top of his concerns.
“One of the biggest issues we have in South Australia is the loss of estate, particularly down in the South East where we have lost 30,000 hectares directly and indirectly over the last decade,” Mr Paine said.
“At a time when we see increasing demand for fibre products, we are seeing a reduction in the amount of fibre we are growing and that means we need to get more trees in the ground today to meet the fibre needs of the community tomorrow.”
He said the State Government initiative of putting trees on farmland which would help get more trees in the ground and assist in off-setting carbon emissions while producing fibre for the future.
“We also still face the issue around access to water allocation down here in the South East and until we get that model fixed we are not going to see too many more trees in the ground and we will not hit our key performance indicators of 50 million more trees over the next five to 10 years,” Mr Paine said.
“This is one of the main reasons we want forestry off the water allocation plan but we are realists and we understand we are unlikely to be excluded from the water allocation plan as we are a consumer of water and so it is reasonable for us to be in there.
“What I wanted to highlight by making that call is the fact we are the only industry that suffered a loss of production as a consequence of the water allocation.”
Mr Paine also noted the nation was growing “four to five times” the amount of food needed, most of which was then exported.
“We are not growing enough fibre to be able to build our children’s homes in the next 30 to 50 years,” he said.
“We all have an ambition that every stick of fibre, every tree we grow here in the Green Triangle should be processed here and create jobs and I hope the advisory council will create a better future for the Green Triangle and forest industries.”
South Australia’s Minister for Forestry Clare Scriven said she knew how important it was to get more trees in the ground and the shortage of timber both nationally and internationally.
“I think as a nation we are really keen to make sure there is a greater supply, remembering of course that timber is the ultimate renewable and therefore one of the types of building materials we want to be using,” Ms Scriven said.
“There are a few aspects to making sure we have the research to maximise what we can get out of the existing trees and secondly is also around research about how we can grow more efficiently and effectively.”
She said there were going to be other aspects of the research planned including re-search on the trees on farms initiative and its potential benefits both environmentally and economically.
The advisory council was expected to provide a broader cross section of the value chain and “better additional input” from all sectors about how to get more trees in the ground whilst not placing extra pressure on current resources.
“It needs to make sense for the farmers from a business perspective in addition to overcoming some of the barriers that might exist, such as management with small areas of plantation,” Ms Scriven said.
“There is also the review of the water al-location plan at the moment and there has been long term discussions over whether trees should be treated in the same way and what we are keen to do is rely on the science and there has been a large amount of science that has been done since the last water allocation plan all of which will be taken into account in developing the law.”
She said by re-establishing the advisory council with a broader membership it would allow more senior executives from relevant government departments to provide an in-sight and allow for a “holistic” approach to the forestry industry.
“We know forestry is already a huge contributor to our region and we know it is al-ready a huge contributor to our region but there are opportunities to be doing more,” Ms Scriven said.
“We want to be looking at adding higher value outputs and so having a first ministries advisory council that takes into account all of those aspects and brings all that experienced parties together.
“We will also be looking at the future workforce because we know how many challenges there are in the future workforce and this group is well placed to be able to give some important input and hopefully come up with some creative ideas about how we can do that.”
