There’s a lot of disinformation out there about Australia’s forestry sector, but like the many thousands of people who rely on our industries for employment and essential everyday products, we know Australian forestry is critical for our national and local economies, fighting climate change and to produce items we need to live our lives.
We’ve assembled a series of facts and information brochures below to explain what we do.
What is Australia’s forestry and forest products sector and supply chain?
The sector and supply chain is made up of all the businesses and organisations responsible for:
- Sustainably growing, managing and harvesting production trees in plantations and native forests.
- Processing and manufacturing the timber and wood-fibre from those trees into a range of essential products from house-framing, decking and home furnishings to cardboard, paper, tissue and other packaging items.
- The transport and logistics operations required to move our timber, wood-fibre and manufactured products at various stages of the supply chain.
FAST FACTS
For the economy
- The sector contributes $24 billion to Australia’s economy annually, employs 80,000 Australians directly and another 100,000 indirectly across the supply chain.
- Many of these jobs are in regional Australia, where the sector often underpins entire towns. Think places like Mount Gambier in South Australia, Tumut in NSW, Bunbury in Western Australia and Burnie in Tasmania.
For the climate
- Like nothing else, trees have the ability to sequester carbon through photosynthesis. So when production trees are harvested, that carbon remains within our products. It’s good for fighting climate change and good for the environment.
- Australia’s plantations store 258 million tonnes of CO² and the average timber home stores between 9 and 25 tonnes of CO².
For daily living
- The products Australia’s forestry sector is responsible for creating are many and varied, including: structural timber for house-frames and home renovations, timber floorboards and home furnishings like staircases, benchtops and decking. Cardboard boxes, paper and tissue products including toilet paper!
- When the timber and wood-fibre for these products is grown and manufactured locally, it’s being done to world best environmental standards while making a stronger Australia.
Industry Snapshots
The supply chain is divided up into several parts so take a look at the snapshots below on each section.
