Forestry

Tasmania has a landmass of 6.8 million hectares, of which approximately 3.35 milion hectares (49% of the State's landmass) is covered by forest. The forest estate can be broadly split into two categories - native forest and plantation forest. Tasmania's native forest estate totals 3,116,000 hectares and the plantation estate is 274,000 hectares.

Approximately 47% of Tasmania's native forests are reserved. More generally, Tasmania has high levels of reserves, with the State being protected in World Heritage wilderness areas, national parks and other formal or informal reserves.

Tasmania has 22 % of Australia's broadleaved plantation and 7% of softwood plantation areas. The broadleaved plantation area is second only to Western Australia. In keeping with the Australian trend, the softwood area has remained relatively static in recent years, whilst the broadleaved plantation area has increased by 40% since 2001.

Forestry is one of the four main industries in Tasmania, with an annual turnover of $1.4 to $1.6 billion and is the second largest contributor to Gross Domestic Product.

The forest industry provides more than 6,000 direct jobs, 20% of Tasmania's manufacturing employment and more than 25% of manufacturing wages.

The Tasmanian forestry industry contributes significantly to national forest production, accounting for:

• 22% of the value and 20% of the volume of total Australian wood production
• 15% of sawn hardwood production and 4% of sawn softwood production.

Despite the recent increases in eucalypt plantation area, total production in Tasmania (by volume) is dominated by native forests (64%), then softwood (18%), and eucalypt plantation production (17%).

As the eucalypt plantations mature in the next 10 to 15 years, this proportion will begin to alter. Forecasts of future production can be found on the Forestry Tasmania website (for State Forest) and the Private Forests Tasmania website (all private land).

Forestry Tasmania has statutory responsibility for the management of 1.5 million hectares of public forest land, comprising both Forest Reserves (conservation) and State Forest (wood production).

Privately owned forests make up about 30% of the total forested area of the State. This sector of the industry is supported by Private Forests Tasmania. The two biggest private forest owners / managers are Gunns Limited and Forest Enterprises Australia.

There are a number of key national and State government policy initiatives supporting the forestry sector including the National Forest Policy Statement, the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreements and Plantations for Australia: the 2020 Vision. The Regional Forest Agreement is a 20 year (1997-2017) agreement between the Australian and Tasmanian Governments that provides the industry with security over access to forest resources, while providing for a comprehensive, adequate and representive (CAR) reserve system and ecologically sustainable management of forests.

In addition, the Tasmanian Government has a number of regulatory instruments supporting the forest industry such as the State Policy on the Protection of Agricultural Land 2000, and the Forest Practices Act 1985 (including the provision for Private Forest Reserves and a Forest Practices Code). See the Regulation section for more information.

All of Tasmania's public forests, and the majority of private forests, are now certified under the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) which is a certification system for recognising environmental, economic, social and cultural forest management performance and sustainability in the forest industry. It is based on the ISO 14001: 1996 standard and the Montreal Process. The AFS is recognised by the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) .