The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) says the signing of the Conservation Agreement between the Federal and Tasmanian State Governments today was a step forward, but reiterated the importance that the supply of logs to industry be guaranteed.
“While the agreement has identified limited areas to supply the needs of the local industry, the number of coupes has been reduced significantly to twelve. This has potentially increased risk to the supply of wood to the Tasmanian industry,” AFPA CEO David Pollard said.
“Wood supply must be delivered, as per the original Tasmanian Intergovernmental Agreement. The industry signed the Statement of Principles for this process under an ironclad guarantee from the Tasmanian Government of security of supply for remaining wood processors following Gunns Ltd’s exit from the industry.
“Security for the remaining industry, and the communities it supports, should be given even weight as the goals of conservationists in this process,” said Dr Pollard.
