Thread: State of the Forests 2008 report just released

Thank you SBD, interesting reading

Now, I have question's that you might be able to answer or at least point me in the right direction.

How much woodchip do we produce each year
How much of it do we export and how much do we use for chipboard etc
How much is produced from old growth and how much is produced from plantation timber
I do believe that there is a woodchipping operation on Tiwi Island NT cutting old growth, is this correct?

Hope you can help me out here because I'm pretty passionate about our timbers, especially that wonderful stuff in Tasmania. Timber should be for making homes, not news papers.

The right direction is something I can point you in....head to www.abare.gov.au for all the answers. Specifically this report (approx 0.5MB in size) http://www.abare.gov.au/publications...fwps_may08.pdf

How much woodchip do we produce each year the report seems to suggest about 9,000 kilotonnes from broadleaf trees plus another 3,500 kilotonnes from conifers
How much of it do we export and how much do we use for chipboard etc in 2006/07, almost 6 thousand kilotonnes with a value of a bit over $950 million was exported (bizarrely, we also imported 0.8 kilotonnes of woodchip during the same period).......chipboard/MDF production in Oz during 06-07 amounted to 1.6 million cubic metres while we imported another 100,000 cubic metres
How much is produced from old growth and how much is produced from plantation timber
The majority (~5300kt) of broadleaf sourced woodchip still comes from native forest but the volume of plantation sourced woodchip is rising at a massive rate and will undoubtably surpass native forest sourced chip within the next couple of years - the report does not differentiate between old growth native and managed native forest.

Thank you very much for that info SBD, much appreciated