Time to see the wood for the trees: expert

Artificial propping up of the plantation timber industry is set to lead to a yearly wood glut the equivalent of all of Norway's annual wood production, and the Federal Government should take this as the cue for substantial structural change in the industry, according to an ANU academic. Economist Judith Ajani of the Fenner School of the Environment and Society at ANU today presented her analysis of the plantation timber industry to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture, Resource, Fisheries and Forestry's inquiry into the Australian Forestry Industry. Ajani detailed how each year's plantation timber crop more than meets the country's needs, and that if consumption continues as it has since the 1990s, Australia will have a plantation wood surplus to domestic needs of around 8.6 million cubic metres each year through to at least 2024. That's the equivalent of Norway or the UK's annual wood production. She says that this oversupply offers the Federal Government an unprecedented opportunity to change land use. 'Australia's existing plantation resource far exceeds its likely long-term demand,? she said. 'That creates an opportunity for government to finally stop bearing the plantation investment risk and open the real forest industry ' beyond forestry lobbyists and plantation managed investment scheme operators - to take responsibility for sending correct market signals to potential plantation investors.