Sandy Kam
The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) attended the annual general meeting of the National Timber Councils Association (NTCA) held in Canberra recently. Source: Timberbiz
High on the agenda was innovation, community engagement, investment, and industry/government collaboration.
AFPA joined NTCA in urging all major political parties to recognise the importance of forest industries in ensuring the social and economic well being of regional and rural communities in Australia.
“Contributing $20 billion to the national economy and around 120,000 direct jobs across the full value chain, forest, wood and paper product industries are a vital part of our regional and rural communities,” President of the NTCA Cr Sandy Kam said. “Members of the NTCA are looking for collaborative solutions across all levels of government to key local issues such as efficient regulation, strategic infrastructure and communications investment.”
Chief Executive Officer of AFPA, Mr Ross Hampton said that faced with increasing international demand for renewable and sustainable products and the necessity to reduce carbon emissions, the world is turning to wood fibre as never before. And Australia is well placed to become a global leader but risks missing the boat.
He said that support by all levels of government for ‘green cities’, ‘wood preferment’ and ‘procurement’ policies that prioritise the consideration of sustainable paper and timber building products, given their low carbon footprint and embodied energy, could provide significant momentum to innovative lightweight framing and mass timber product solutions (such as Cross Laminated Timber) in Australia.
