National representation of Australia’s plantation forestry, wood and paper industries will be further consolidated next month.
The Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) and Treefarm Investment Managers Association (TIMA) will merge at the end of this month, streamlining and strengthening the policy development and representation currently provided by the two organisations.
A3P is the peak national organisation for Australia’s plantation products and paper industry. A3P members employ more than 13,500 people in plantations, sawmills and paper manufacturing plants, mainly in rural and regional areas. A3P members create and sell more than $4b of products, produce more than 12m cubic metres of logs, 3m cubic metres of sawn timber and more than 2m tonnes of paper.
TIMA has effectively represented the interests of the forestry managed investment schemes (MIS) since its formation in 2000, and has successfully led the industry in achieving a stable and supportive tax and regulatory environment for the forestry MIS sector.
A3P chairperson Linda Sewell said this initiative continued A3P’s drive towards greater cohesion and harmony in industry representation, and facilitated the formulation and advocacy of single industry positions on a number of high priority industry-wide policy issues.
“A3P was initially formed by bringing together the large plantation growers, the major plantation timber processors, and the pulp and paper sector,” Sewell said, “and recently the paper product stewardship organisation, Paper Round also combined with A3P.
“A3P will continue to seek more opportunities to streamline and strengthen the national representation of this diverse industry.”
TIMA president Marcus Derham said TIMA’s substantial achievements had resulted from its specialisation in tax and regulatory policy, which underpins MIS forestry investment and operations.
He added that the Government and the regulators recognised and respected TIMA for the quality of its work and its professionalism in developing and maintaining constructive relationships with Government agencies and other stakeholders.
“MIS forestry is now responsible for around 80% of all new timber plantations and a substantial proportion of replanted plantations, and more than one-third of Australia’s total plantation estate. Early projects are now being harvested and paying returns to their investors.
“As the MIS sector matures and supplies increasing volumes of wood to the market, it is a natural progression that we should be further enhancing our links with other private and government plantation managers and with the wood and paper industry manufacturers.
“TIMA’s substantial expertise in tax and corporate policy and regulation will be transferred into A3P, and the work will continue under the A3P banner,” Derham said.
Both Sewell and Derham welcomed the decisions of their respective organisations, which, together with Australian Forest Growers, have been sharing office premises and working cooperatively on behalf of their members for the past year.
