Penny Wells
CEO of Private Forests Tasmania (PFT), Penny Wells, recently participated in the Premier’s Trade Mission to Japan. One of the main items of focus for the Trade Mission was the resources sector – including forestry, mining and bioenergy. Source: Timberbiz
In line with Private Forests Tasmania’s statutory function “to foster competitive markets”, the Trade Mission provided on opportunity for PFT to:
- strengthen the understanding of one of Tasmania’s key trading partners in the forestry sector,
- support participating forest entities by reinforcing key messages from the Tasmanian Government – via a presentation at a forest industry dinner, and through support at individual business/investor meetings where requested,
- reaffirm and continue to raise the profile of the quality, stability and sustainability of the private forestry resource in Tasmania, convey the Tasmanian Government’s recent announcements regarding Macquarie Wharf and rail transport upgrades, to the Japanese market, and
- support the Tasmanian Government in its presentations and meetings with Japanese Government Ministries.
In Ms Wells speech given during the trade mission she said: “Our private forests now dominate our productive capacity, and this capacity is growing. Last year the total private forest harvest rose for the sixth consecutive year, increasing a further 9% increase on the previous year to supply 4.25 million tonnes of logs to market. This is four times the volume produced from private forests in 2011-12 and takes the private forest cut to nearly 75% of the total harvested volume of timber resource in Tasmania. Plantations currently account for 97% of the total Tasmanian private forest harvest.”
She also stated that the productive capacity of the private forests is yet to be fully realised. “…an even greater opportunity for growth is our private native forests. We have over half a million hectares of these forests potentially available for wood production. With umbrella certification schemes available for such forests in Tasmania, here is a large, currently under-utilised, sustainable resource,” she said.
“With the projected quadrupling of global demand for timber products by 2050, there is enormous potential for this native forest estate to provide opportunities for investment.”
