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Forests Provide Many Benefits
Australia’s forests provide a range of benefits to the community. Through sustainable management, they will continue to be available for generations to come. Forest management varies across the different parts of the forest estate to deliver a broad range of benefits.
For the people and communities living and working in forested regions, forests have significant social values. They provide the basis for employment, services and recreation, and can have cultural importance to Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
Communities benefit significantly from the income from wood production from native forests and plantations, and subsequent processing of wood into sawn timber, wood panels and paper products, which contribute more than 1 per cent of Australia’s GDP.
Australia produces about 96 per cent of its sawn timber needs. Twenty-two per cent is supplied from hardwood (mostly native forests) and 78 per cent from softwood plantations. There are an estimated 1100 sawmills currently operating in Australia, with 75 per cent producing high-value, small volume hardwood products. The remaining 25 per cent are softwood sawmills, many at world-scale levels of production, producing timber mainly for structural manufacturing. Australia also has 22 mills producing pulp or paper products and 30 veneer and board mills.
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in value adding to timber from native forests. For instance, 60 per cent of 1st grade timber from jarrah forests is being value added, and the Western Australian forest industry has agreed to raise this to a 70 per cent minimum for the next round of contracts.
Wilderness areas are managed with minimal human interference. Conservation reserves are managed primarily to conserve biological diversity and ecosystem processes, but also provide valuable tourism and recreational resources. Multiple-use forests are managed to produce timber and other products, and complement conservation reserves by contributing to the maintenance of biological diversity, protecting soil and water resources, and providing recreational and tourism resources. Governments encourage private forest owners to manage their forests sustainably so they contribute to the wide range of forest values. Plantations are managed primarily for wood production. However, they can also contribute a range of other commercial, environmental and aesthetic benefits to the community, such as salinity control and carbon sinks.
Many of Australia’s forests and places within them have international significance as World Heritage, or are significant as part of Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural heritage. These places with natural, cultural or historic significance may be listed on the Register of the National Estate.