Momentum is building around the AFPA proposal for a research and development institute to coordinate forestry, wood and paper products R&D across Australia. Sources: AFPA, Timberbiz

Apps, or applications for iphones and other mobile devices are common, what’s not common are apps for the forest industry but Dr Mihai Daian has developed one for Australia. Source: Timberbiz

Following concerns over a flawed timber trade agreement between Indonesia and the European Union (EU), the Forestry Ministry said it would review its legal framework for timber standards in an effort to curb illegal logging linked to human rights abuses. Source: The Jakarta Post

Demand for OSB and plywood structural engineered wood panels in North America is expected to reach about 30 billion square feet in 2013 and grow to nearly 40 billion square feet by 2016. Source: Principia Consulting

A £15 million institute dedicated to studying how climate change is affecting Britain's woodlands is to be created at the University of Birmingham. Source: The Telegraph (UK)

Will an international decline in specialty timbers lead some of the world’s biggest guitar manufacturers to Tasmania to buy wood? Source: ABC

A beach house on a ridgeline above the Great Ocean Road in Victoria has clinched the country's most prestigious residential architecture prize for a second year in a row for John Wardle Architects. Source: The Australian

The Forestry Corporation of NSW has donated five high quality locally sourced sawlogs and a bark canoe to be auctioned at the Shoalhaven Timber Festival in Milton/Ulladulla for the Dunn & Lewis Youth Development Foundation. Source: 4-Traders