Issue 249 Timber & Forestry

6915

Perfect storm for us housing Advertising: Tel +61 7 3266 1429 Email: cancon@bigpond.net.au

issuE 249 | 26.11.12 | PAgE 1

Wood producers in Chile, Brazil target massive re-build after Hurricane Sandy

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This issuE

• Illegal logging Bill passed • Super wood scientist takes flight

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Cont Page 4

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issuE 249 | 26.11.12 | PAgE 1

iNDusTRY NEWs

Bill goes through Australia joins global fight against illegal logging trade

AUSTRALIA is stepping up its fight against the illegal logging trade with the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012 passed by federal parliament on Monday last week.

The landmark legislation outlaws the trade of illegally harvested timber in Australia.

Illegal logging costs around $60 billion globally each year and directly threatens timber jobs and businesses by undercutting the price of legally logged timber. It is operated by criminal networks and has serious environmental impacts.

The laws, five years in the making, impose fines, jail and forfeiture of goods and oblige importers to carry out mandatory due diligence on timber and timber products sourced from overseas.

High-risk products include outdoor furniture, decking and plywood made from tropical hardwood species.

Telling illegal and legal wood and wood products apart is impossible by sight alone, making it relatively easy to mislabel origin and forge import documents.

The Australian laws impose a maximum penalty of five years’ jail and a fine of $275,000 for a company or $55,000 for an individual if they knowingly, recklessly import or process illegally logged timber products.

There were sound commercial and environmental reasons to support the laws, said Ross Hearne, general manager of corporate services for Kimberly-Clark Australia and

ForestWorks performs a range of industry wide functions acting as the channel between industry, Government and the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system Joe Ludwig .. passage of legislation reflects Australia’s commitment to legitimise forestry industries.

New Zealand, which makes various products from paper.

“We face cheap paper imports in Australia and one of the factors in cheap imports is illegally harvested timber,” he told Reuters, adding supporting the Bill had helped protect the firm’s brand.

Amendments to the US Lacey Act in 2008 ban trade in illegally sourced timber, wood and paper products within the US and internationally. Failure to comply means fines, jail time and forfeiture of goods.

Winners from the laws, apart from forest communities, will be firms that provide timber legality and verification services and timber importers that have already put in place tougher timber sourcing and tracking rules.

One potential winner is DNA testing and timber tracking

VICTORIA PO Box 612, North Melbourne 3051 Tel: (03) 9321 3500 Email: forestworks@forestworks.com.au

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Now it’s dob in a logger, P. 12 Cont Page 11

Winners from the laws, apart from forest communities, will be firms that provide timber legality and verification services and timber importers that have already put in place tougher timber sourcing and tracking rules PAgE 2 | issuE 249 | 26.11.12

Learning Skills Research Advice Innovation

TASMANIA PO Box 2146, Launceston 7250 Tel: (03) 6331 6077 Email: edown@forestworks.com.au

SOUTH AUSTRALIA Level 2, 32 South Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000 Tel: (08) 8219 9028 Email: michelle@forestworks.com.au

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FORESTS AND LAND USE

A recipe for disaster Locking up forests doesn’t work!

By

JAN DAVIS

WHEN you reduce the land use issues facing Tasmania to their basic arguments, a single message emerges: we must manage our landscape carefully and from a firm understanding of both history and science.

Managing landscapes with a view to long-term viability and sustainability rather than short-term gain and irreparable damage is what Tasmanian farmers do every day.

The challenge we face, both as farmers and as Tasmanians, is to manage our landscape so that we can use it and still keep the things we love in perpetuity.

This is not rocket science; socalled primitive peoples had worked it out 40,000 years ago.

They managed this landscape through the use of fire. Not only did fire replenish the forests but it created a less dense landscape for hunting.

One of the great unspoken truths in the forest debate is that, if you lock up large tracts of forest in national parks or World Heritage areas, you must be able to manage those forests or, eventually, they will be destroyed.

In his book The Private Life of Plants, Sir David Attenborough explains why even the world’s tallest flowering plant, the Tasmanian swamp gum (also known as the Victorian mountain ash) cannot survive without fire: “The threat to the survival of the spectacular forests of noble mountain ash is not, in fact, fire. It is the absence of fire,” he wrote.

“If the great trees die from old age before flames have cleared the ground for their seedlings, then they will leave no successors.

Landscape – and forests – needs to be burned back to a better natural balance.

“Paradoxically, such a forest will not survive unless much of it is first destroyed.”

Bill Gammage, a respected historian who is an adjunct professor at the Australian National University agrees.

Quoted recently in an article in the Weekend Australian, he said the landscape needs to be burned back to a better natural balance – one that does not lend itself to regular catastrophic bushfires.

Gammage’s most recent book, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia, has picked up a swathe of awards, including the Victorian Prize for Literature, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian history, and the Queensland literary award for history.

An amalgam of history,

Jan Davis .. the landscape is the canvas upon which we all paint.

philosophy and ecology, the book describes how Aborigines not only lived with the land, but shaped it with constant burning to ensure continuity, balance, abundance and predictability.

It sends a clear message – and a challenge to the idea of

‘One of the great unspoken truths in the forest debate is that, if you lock up large tracts of forest in national parks or world heritage areas, you must be able to manage those forests or, eventually, they will be destroyed’ – Jan Davis

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‘pristine wilderness’ – that not all environmentalists want to hear.

Max Rheese, executive director of the Australian Environment Foundation, agrees. In the same article, he says Aborigines would never have allowed national park ‘wilderness’ areas to grow into such profusion and would have regarded this as intensely threatening.

After the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, the Royal Commission recommended that prescribed burning be increased to 5% of forests annually. The foundation advocated an increase from 120,000 ha to 390,00 0ha a year, but received little support from other environment groups.

The Victorian government has doubled the burn area since 2009 and is progressively raising it to 390,000 ha a year.

Research tells us that the private forest estate alone adds about 10,000 tonnes of firewood, plus the branches and leaves/volatiles to the Tasmanian bonfire pile every day. Without fire breaks, and without management of fuel loads, the threat of wildfires on a huge scale is significant.

If the state government is considering locking up additional forest then it should not do this without getting some very good advice first.

This advice will confirm that scientists know forests need active management and/or disturbance to thrive. It will confirm that historians tell us this is what the indigenous peoples did. It will confirm that our own experiences is show that, where active forest management occurs, biodiversity is greater than where forests are locked up and left. It will even Cont Page 6

issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 3

INDUSTRY NEWS

US housing demand going to be strong, driven by demographics

From Page 1

of lumber. The demand will definitely push global prices higher for timber, a boost for Chile. And if the dollar strengthens it will be even better for Chilean and Brazilian exporters.

This is sure to turn then tide on lumber exports from both countries away from Australia and New Zealand where the housing market is in the doldrums.

In the US and Canada, skilled labourers have abandoned the long-dormant industry, and now massive labour shortages are predicted as mills and logging camps get back to work.

“As demand ramps up, we’re not going to find the employees we need,” says MaryAnne

Picking up the pieces .. rebuilding effort in the US will be a boon to the construction industry.

Arcand, executive director of Canada’s Central Interior Logging Association, who predicts her industry will be short 2000 skilled workers.

The devastating US housing

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crash in 2008 saw many skilled workers cross over to other, more prosperous, heavy industries, such as mining and oil and gas.

Now the challenge is to get them back, or recruit others to fill their spots.

“We’re looking at immigration to bring in foreign workers,” Ms Arcand said.

Most of the upswing is due to early signs of a rebound in the US housing market, which saw housing starts drop to 1950s levels after a decades-long boom went bust in 2008.

That meant that British Columbia’s 10% share of the $500 billion US residential home market evaporated, leading to the shutdown of 23 mills in the Canadian province.

As bad as it sounds, the demand from Sandy will start to add to demand for logs in the next few months, with rebuilding needs.

Canada’s Minister of Forests Steve Thomson says lumber prices were already up 18% in

‘Sandy is not as important to the overall picture as increased demand in the US and China’

October compared to October last year, and speculative price pressure connected to Sandy damage is moving lumber prices even before real demand from building permits comes through.

Industry observers say the government should have been training workers for the inevitable forestry turnaround.

“There are challenges around availability of skilled labour, but we’ve been working with industry associations to put training in place,” Steve Thomson responded.

Respected forest products research analyst David Elstone says Sandy is not as important to the overall picture as increased demand in the US and China.

“It’s a one-off event,” he said.

“It won’t be, ‘Oh, my God, Sandy is crazy.’ It’s part of the mosaic of overall demand.”

Mr Elstone said markets move on the expectation of future changes, but have a tendency to overreact.

“There will be some rebuilding, and people get excited about it, especially in the commodities trading area,” he said.

“But north east US is still in recovery mode, and not yet in rebuilding mode.

“Right now, they’re just trying to recover, to get back to a state where they can function.”

He added: “Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, had little overall effect on lumber markets.”

A former US deputy Treasury secretary Roger Altman says there is no sector of America’s economy that is more cyclical than housing.

If it is pushed down far enough and long enough, as it was in the post-2008 housing depression, it will eventually snap back to levels that exceed historical norms.

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WHAT’S ON?

NOVEMBER

26: FSC Australia 6th Annual Excellence awards, Melbourne This year sees a redesign of the awards, and the introduction of three new awards categories.

Visit www.fscaustralia.org 28-29: ForestTech 2012 – Improving Wood Transport and Logistics.

Melbourne and Rotorua

30: NSW Forest Products Association annual conference and timber industry dinner.

Parkview Room, Doltone House, Darling Island Wharf, 48 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont. Conference 9am3.30pm. Theme: Community Engagement for the Forestry Industry. Keynote speaker Troy Grant, Parliamentary Secretary Natural Resources. AGM for FPA members at 4pm. Dinner starts at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont, at 6.30pm. RSVP: November 2. Tel: (02) 9279 2344. Email: fpa@nswfpa.asn.au. Web www. nswfpa.asn.au

APRIL 2013

7-10: 6th International Woodfibre Resources andTrade Conference, Istanbul, Turkey.

‘Woodchips and Biomass for

Global and Regional Markets’.

Hilton Istanbul Hotel. Discounted rooms for conference delegates if booked via the online process.

Book before November 2, 2012 to ensure a room. Visit www. woodfibreconference.com Residues-to-Revenues 2013 Conference and CleanTECH Expo Wood energy and ‘cleantech’ industry developments.

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Auckland, April 10-11, 2013; Bayview Eden Hotel, Melbourne, April 15-16, 2013. Event website: www. woodresiduesevents.com

7-11: Institute of Foresters of Australia conference – Canberra Rex Hotel, Canberra.

‘Managing Our Forests into the 21st Century’. Inquires to Alison Carmichael, chief executive, IFA, PO Box 7002, Yarralumla ACT 2600. Tel: (02) 6281 3992. Mob: 0414 287 079. Email: alison. carmichael@forestry.org.au Web: www.forestry.org.au

April 28-May 12: EuroWOOD 13 study tour to LIGNA Hannover (May 6-10). Study tour and tourist visits to Austria and Germany, starting in Vienna and finishing at LIGNA, Hannover, Germany. Add-on tour options to Finland and UK and European

EVENTS

destinations. The 15-day tour is supported by the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia (EWPAA), in collaboration with other industry bodies and companies.

Participants will have the option to attend the full LIGNA program in Hannover and join selected visits to surrounding wood manufacturing factories and a university outside LIGNA for one or two days, allowing three full days at LIGNA. Internet site available soon. Costs: $7550* (+gst) p.p. or $8065* (+gst) single includes all airfares, ground travel and most meals, including entry to the famous LIGNAHannover Fair from May 6-10.

For a full itinerary and payment details, contact the EuroWOOD 2013 Secretariat, PO Box 330, Hamilton Central Q 4007 or email eurowood13@ bigpond.com * Tax deductible industry tour

MAY 2013

8: Global Softwood Log & Lumber Conference Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, Vancouver, BC. Sponsor opportunities available. Contact: info@ woodmarkets.com or call 1-604801-5996.

Industry yet to feel full impact of Gunns collapse

INDUSTRY analysts say the forest sector in Tasmanian may be experiencing significant struggles but is yet to feel the full force of the collapse of Gunns Ltd.

Several companies with Western Australian south coast links were implicated in the downfall of Gunns with one business that has a significant employee base in

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Albany at risk of losing $2.5 million.

Numerous unsecured creditors say they have given up hope of recovering the money they are owed.

Australia’s forest, wood, pulp and paper products industry now has a stronger voice in dealings with government, the community and in key negotiations on the industry’s future, as two peak associations have merged to form a single national association.

The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has been formed through the merger of the Australian Plantations Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) and the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI).

AFPA was established to cover all aspects of Australia’s forest industry: - Forest growing; - Harvest and haulage; - Sawmilling and other wood processing; - Pulp and paper processing; and - Forest product exporting.

For more information on the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) or to enquire about membership , please call (02) 6285 3833.

issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 5

FORESTS AND LAND USE

Science shows forests need active management to thrive

From Page 3

confirm that much-touted Forest Stewardship Council management guidelines recognise that high conservation forest will be actively managed.

Other places around the world have found to their cost that locking up such forests doesn’t work. In places like California and Canada, they had catastrophic wildfires that damaged people and property and did great environmental harm because they were hot

fires. Governments in these places have since reversed their decisions to lock up their native forests and are now harvesting forest produce to remove fuel and are using it to generate energy though biomass.

The landscape is the canvas upon which we all paint.

However, we’re not starting with a blank canvas – this canvas is largely already completed.

Our surrounding landscape is not only for us to sit back and enjoy. While it is the backdrop of our life, it is also the medium for us to create food, shelter

THE City of Sydney is to release a draft Urban Forest Strategy for public consultation aimed at greening the city, reducing power bills and beautifying inner-city properties.

Under the plan, the city will grow its urban forest and green canopy by up to 50% by 2030 and maximise the environmental, economic and social benefits of trees and plants to the community.

There are currently around 81,000 trees in the City of

Sydney area which provide a canopy cover of just over 15%. Under the Urban Forest Strategy, this would increase to more than 23% by 2030.

The ambition is to create great streets and public spaces, while protecting and improving the urban forest, by planting the appropriate trees for each street and park and increasing the diversity of species in our area.

“Our growing urban forest contributes greatly to the city’s

Private forests big farm enterprise in Tasmania.

and the other necessities of life.

It is long past time that all Tasmanians recognised that we live in an altered landscape and

simply locking it up is a recipe for disaster.

It is also long past time that all Tasmanians recognise they have a role to play in ensuring that what we do preserves and enhances the picture we have inherited, without destroying its essence.

• Jan Davis is chief executive of the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association which represents more than 5000 members who live and work on farm businesses – including private forests – situated across Tasmania.

Urban forests reduce stress on the streets

Page 6 | issue 249 | 26.11.12

character, as well as improving our air, soil and water quality,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

“Street trees improve mental health and well-being by reducing stress in urban green spaces, as well as providing a sense of place and enhancing property values.

Planting trees .. greening the City of Sydney.

“Deciduous trees cut summer cooling bills, while still allowing in light and warmth through during winter.”

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TIMBER PRESERVATION

Creosote, creosol or creosoap?

TPAA website answers them all

COUNTRIES visiting the Timber Preservers Association of Australia’s website in the first nine months of the year included the US, Britain, New Zealand and China – but as expected Australia set the pace in the top ten at 74% hits.

Australia was followed by USA (10.7%), Great Britain (4.9%), New Zealand (2.8%), China (2.7%), South Africa (1.2%), Germany (1.1%), India (1%), Malaysia (0.9%), and Singapore (0.7%).

Councillors queried whether there was an explanation for the considerable increase in ‘bandwidth used’ in August and a doubling of it in September.

There was a consensus that as this was an indication of documents being downloaded from the website, it was probable that the increase was due to the recent availability of the TPAA flyer and promotional advertisements as well as the treated timber vineyard posts fact sheet.

However, checking revealed that increased downloads were almost entirely the vineyards post fact sheet.

TPAA national secretary Doug Howick said it became even more interesting when the 10 most frequently searched key phrases popped up – creosote, LOSP, TPAA, LOSP treatment, ACQ, treated timber, timber treatment, LOSP timber, ACQ timber and LOSP timber treatment.

“Certainly, the cumulative interest in LOSP timber

treatment outweighs that of any other preservation system but that doesn’t mean it is the most popular or important,” Mr Howick said.

“It simply means that it is the system about which people are constantly seeking further information.

“Actually, although many may be surprised at how highly this preservative rates on the queries to our website, the TPAA national office is not surprised at all. In fact, if we go into the detail of every key

Doug Howick .. the cumulative interest in LOSP timber treatment outweighs that of any other preservation system.

query word to our website.”

Mr Howick said there were separate entries for ‘creosote’, ‘cresote’, ‘creasote’, ‘creasot, ‘creasode’, ‘creesote’, ‘cresoting’, ‘creosol’, ‘creosoted’, ‘cleansote’, and even ‘creosoap’!”

Among the telephone calls to the TPAA technical inquiry service, many about creosote.

Mostly, the inquiries are from people who want to know how they can obtain the product,

Cont Page 12

Creosote may still be used commercially for pole treatment but it must be applied in an approved and supervised commercial treatment plant Advertising: Tel +61 7 3266 1429 Email: cancon@bigpond.net.au

issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 7

ISSUES

IGA durability destroyed before deal even done, says Colbeck

Bob Brown

Organisations such as Markets for Change had no interest in the durability of the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), Senator Colbeck said.

“If the IGA works they have no reason to exist.”

He said Bob Brown’s appointment showed these organisations were preparing to ramp up their operations, not close them down.

“When the next phase of the anti-forestry campaign starts, no doubt we will be given the same sort of feeble excuses as we have in the past,” he said.

“What we do know is throughout this process there has been a structured and coordinated campaign of disruption and attack on industry players.

They have used the strong links between the various ENGO groups, including cross memberships, to play a double game.”

Senator Colbeck said the Gillard and Giddings governments bullied industry back into the sham talks after its recent breakdown. They also appeared oblivious to the fact that the arrangement will not deliver durability, even if some level of agreement can be reached in the first instance.

“All of this clearly shows they have abandoned the forest industry in favour of their Green

Page 8 | issue 249 | 26.11.12

EX Greens leader Bob Brown’s appointment as a director for Markets for Change shows yet again Tasmanians were “sold a con with the sham forests peace deal,” Coalition forestry spokesman Richard Colbeck said.

“The green lobby group – fighting for the end of the native forest industry – was mustering high-profile players even as ENGOs in the peace talks consider an offer put on the table by industry,” Senator Colbeck said.

partners,” Senator Colbeck said.

Ex-state Greens leader Peg Putt has also joined the ranks of Markets for Change. She says a major fundraising push is imminent, foreshadowing an increase in campaigning.

“He (Bob Brown) is one of the best known environmental campaigners, if not the best known environmental campaigner on the planet and he’s a great leader as well,” Ms Putt said.

“We empower consumers to understand when they go to buy something like a bed, or a piece of flooring, whether or not it’s come at the expense of destroying a high-conservation forest.”

Ms Putt does not think her or Mr Brown’s involvement will affect Tasmania’s Labor-Green government, which has come under pressure after protest action against Ta Ann Tasmania.

She says Markets for Change will decide whether to step up its campaign against the company once the informal forest peace talks finish.

Ms Putt was responsible for the

party’s forests portfolio until her retirement in 2008. Bob Brown retired as Australian Greens leader in April.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings has backed Education Minister Nick McKim despite his support for forest protests which she has labelled appalling.

The Opposition wants the Greens leader sacked from Cabinet for justifying continuing anti-forestry protests.

Mr McKim has compared antiforestry protesters to heroic freedom fighters, including Nelson Mandela.

Five people have been charged with trespass after chaining themselves to property at Ta Ann’s timber mill at Judbury in the state’s south.

Lara Giddings condemned the protests as disgraceful.

But Mr McKim has told ABC Local Radio he understood the frustrations of activists in the wake of the forest peace deal collapse.

“You look at people like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi and Rosa Parks,” he said.

“For many decades through human history they have all done that, in part, by protests that were actually categorised as illegal at the time.

“Now those people are treated as heroes and rightly so.

“The people who are protesting now around forests are frustrated and I share in their frustrations in that, despite all of the talk, all of the dollars flowing to various parts of the forest industry, not one single

‘What we do know is throughout this process there has been a structured and coordinated campaign of disruption and attack on industry players’ – Senator Richard Colbeck

Richard Colbeck

hectare of forest has been protected yet through the IGA process.”

Ms Giddings backed her minister, but disagreed with his view – “but that’s not a sackable offence”.

Deputy Premier Bryan Green said he knew Mr McKim did not share the view of fringe environmental groups to end all native forest logging.

“I think what Mr McKim is doing...is respecting people’s right to protest.”

Mr Green agreed fringe activists were undermining the bid to end Tasmania’s forest wars.

Referring to recent physical protests against Ta Ann’s Smithton mill, Senator Colbeck said environmentalists had clearly signalled they were comfortable playing with the lives of 160 workers and $80 million in Tasmanian investment.

“If you weren’t aware of green tactics, the first protest at the Smithton mill could be written off as horribly ill-conceived,” Senator Richard Colbeck said.

“But there’s no defence today.

This new action is reckless, insensitive and just plain dumb.

“This has been part of a strategic, coordinated effort by the environmental movement nationally to wreck and destroy.”

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Forestry Bill sets sets scene for ‘a new era’ in NSW

THE NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson has welcomed the passage last week of the Forestry Bill 2012 as representing “a new era for forestry in NSW. The Forestry Bill 2012 will strengthen the governance arrangements and commercial viability of Forests NSW by establishing it as a state-owned corporation, to be known as the Forestry Corporation of New South Wales.

Ms Hodgkinson said corporatisation would install a commercially-focused, skills-based board as part of NSW government reforms to an industry which had been virtually crippled by the ALP government’s political objectives and electoral preference dealings.

She said the governance structure under the new corporation would change, but not the nature of the business and its relationships with stakeholders.

“Forestry Corporation of NSW will remain publicly owned and it will continue to manage the state’s native and plantation forest estates for the government and for the people, with due regard to the multiple uses of the forests, including their environmental and recreational values,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

“Other legislation that applies to the management of publiclyowned forests remains in place and there is to be no reduction in the stringent regulatory oversight of native forest

INDUSTRY NEWS

Katrina Hodgkinson .. no reduction in the stringent regulatory oversight of native forest harvesting.

harvesting.

“The Bill does not change the ability of members of the community to access state forests, whether they are mountain bikers, hikers, conservation hunters, dog walkers or four-wheel drivers.

“Nor does it change Forest NSW’s roles in road maintenance, fire management, and feral animal and weed control.”

Last year an independent study found there was potential to improve the financial performance of Forests NSW by up to $22 million a year.

“This is clearly a far better return for the people of NSW if the new Board can achieve these savings,” Ms Hodgkinson said.

The Forestry Bill 2012 modernises the previous Forestry Act, first enacted in 1916, and repeals the obsolete Timber Marketing Act 1977.

dennis@industrye-news.com

editorial inquiries

tel: +61 32661429

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issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 9

FOREsT sTANDARDs

us consumer group objects to forests certification monopoly

KEY findings of a report by leading consumer organisation the American Consumer Institute (ACI) Centre for Citizen Research show marketplace confusion over certification standards.

Such standards could be driving prices up nearly 20% for those who are willing to pay more for sustainable wood and paper products but may not actually be getting something that is better for the environment, says the report.

ACI has urged the US Green Building Council to adopt a more inclusive participation of certification programs, finding that the organisation’s current recognition of a single forest certification, the Forestry Stewardship Council standard, is problematic – both in terms of the economic costs and environmental benefits.

Specifically: • The decision by the USGBC to use only FSC for its LEED rating system upsets the balance between economic costs and environmental benefits by decreasing economic viability at home; increasing consumer prices; and potentially putting the environment at risk.

• The adoption of FSC works

to exclude three-quarters of the nation’s certified forests, because 90% of FSC certified lands are outside of the US. • Based on a recent study by ACI, the single standard was found to raise consumer prices by upwards of 20%, result in billions of dollars in economic losses, and potentially put the world’s environment at risk.

While consumer costs increase, there is no evidence that the world’s environment is better off with an FSC-only standard. Because of FSC’s disparity in standards across the globe, the reliance on the FSC standard may incentivise the harvesting of wood in more environmentally risky

Steve Pociask .. a system that recognises multiple programs would encourage producers to more quickly adopt sound forest management practices.

locations. For example, due to

the heterogeneous standards between countries, it is easier to take wood from virgin forests in Russia than a well-managed and controlled forest in the US. A regulatory bias for foreign wood could lead to an increased importation of foreign timber, thereby adding transportation costs and creating other environmental harms whose costs are ultimately burdened by the American consumer.

Higher wood prices in the US will also encourage consumers to substitute for less environmentally-friendly materials, including concrete, plastics and steel.

“In rejecting LEED in its current form, the USGBC would join the hundreds of elected officials nationwide and thousands of individuals and groups with expertise on land management who favour a more inclusive standard,” says ACI president Steve Pociask.

“A system that recognises multiple programs would better maintain competition and encourage US producers to more quickly adopt sound forest management practices and produce more environmentally-friendly wood and paper products.”

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The product has undergone comprehensive testing at the engineering faculty of the University of Technology Sydney under the guidance of internationally renowned timber engineer Prof. Keith Crews.

Engineered Timber Products

Loggo products have undergone comprehensive testing at the engineering faculty of the university of Technology sydney.

PAgE 10 | issuE 249 | 26.11.12

The project is keen to establish a plant near a guaranteed resource.

Contact: (02) 4256 4767 or email pat@loggo.com.au www.loggo.com.au

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iNDusTRY NEWs

High-risk .. new law has severe penalties for those importing products made from illegally harvested tropical hardwoods.

‘We have consulted widely with industry’

From Page 2

technology developed by Singapore-based Double Helix Tracking Technologies and used by Australian client Simmonds Lumber, one of the country’s largest timber importers.

DNA tests can pinpoint the species and origin of a piece of timber. DoubleHelix, as it is known, can also track timber and timber products from forest to shop to ensure clients’ shipments are legal.

Federal Minister for Forestry Senator Joe Ludwig said the passage of the legislation reflected Australia’s commitment to legitimise forestry industries.

“The illegal timber trade is a trade that benefits no one,” Senator Ludwig said.

“It risks jobs, it risks the timber industry, and it risks the environment.”

He said the legislation did not discriminate against timber

or timber products based on country of origin.

“The Act will make it an offence to import illegally logged timber into the Australian market and to process timber that has been illegally harvested here in Australia,” Senator Ludwig said.

“It places requirements on Australian importers and processors – not on our trading partners or exporters.

“The government has consulted widely with importers, processors, industry associations, retailers, conservation groups and our trading partners to develop this Act. “We will continue to work with each of these stakeholders as we implement it.”

The passage of the legislation brings Australia into line with the European Union and the US, who have also taken action to prohibit the trade of illegally harvested timber.

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Get fair dinkum!

Use Aussie and Kiwi wood and keep jobs at homethe spirit!

That’s

Working together for ....

JOBS security on both sides of the Tasman Wood from 100% LEGAL forests Consistent QUALITY LOWEST emissions Structurally SAFE GUARANTEED to Australasian Standards LOYALTY to true-blue forest products Get fair dinkum!

Don’t export jobs just for the sake of cheap imports

Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia Plywood House, 3 Dunlop Street, Newstead, 4006 Queensland Australia Tel: +61 7 3250 3700 Fax: +61 7 3252 4769 Emai: inbox@ewp.asn.au

Web: www.ewp.asn.au

issuE 249 | 26.11.12 | PAgE 11

ISSUES

Hotline: Now it’s dob in a logger

THE federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has posted a Q&A on the illegal logging Bill on its website.

This would also apply to the domestic timber industry, which also comes into the crosshairs of the Bill.

Why has this legislation been introduced?

The Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2012 is designed to reduce the harmful environmental, social and economic impacts of illegal logging.

This legislation supports Australia’s commitment to promote the global trade of legally harvested timber.

When do these changes take effect?

The new legislation becomes law the day after the Act receives Royal Assent.

Who does this legislation affect?

Australian importers of timber or timber products and Australian processors of domestically grown raw logs.

What are my responsibilities as an importer or processor?

Once the Bill becomes law it will be a criminal offence to import illegally logged timber and timber products into Australia or to process Australian raw logs that have been harvested illegally. Australian importers and processors must not knowingly, intentionally or recklessly import or process illegally logged timber.

If you receive information

“I think the man has some funny-looking wood in his yard.”

that timber is illegally logged, believe the timber is illegally logged or are made aware that there is a substantial risk that the timber was illegally logged, do not import or process that timber or timber product.

There are no other requirements that importers and domestic processors are obliged to meet until detailed regulations are implemented, which will come into effect two years after the Bill becomes law.

When will the regulations come into effect?

Two years from Royal Assent, the Australian government

will introduce regulations that clearly outline the operational framework for importers and processors, including due diligence processes and a detailed list of products that will be subject to the regulations.

The government will release draft regulations six months from when the Bill becomes law to allow industry sufficient time to establish due diligence systems and processes.

What penalties can be applied under this legislation?

Penalties are at the discretion of a court; the maximum penalties that may be applied

currently are: • Five years imprisonment, and/or • $55 000 for an individual, and/or • $275 000 for a corporation or body corporate.

How does the legislation meet Australia’s international trading obligations?

Australia is introducing the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2012 to aid international efforts to promote legal timber trade.

This reflects both Australia’s commitment to restrict the trade in illegal timber and equivalent legislation being introduced or developed in the European and US markets.

This legislation is consistent with Australia’s trade obligations and supports Australia’s commitment to promote the trade of legally harvested timber.

What do Australia’s trading partners need to do?

The Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2012 does not regulate Australia’s trading partners.

The Bill will place no legal obligations on Australia’s trading partners, it only places requirements on Australian importers and processors and seeks to minimise the risk of illegal timber being placed on the Australian market.

What are the next steps?

Once the legislation is in place you can report someone who you suspect is doing the wrong thing by phoning 1800 803 006 or emailing Illegal Logging.

Registration for creosote was changed several years ago From Page 7

so that they can use it for DIY application to siding or fence posts. TPAA’s standard response is: “The registration category for creosote was changed several years ago. It is no longer available for sale to the general

Page 12 | issue 249 | 26.11.12

public. Creosote or pigment emulsified creosote are now deemed to be hazardous substances (Poisons Schedule S2).

“However, creosote may still be used commercially for pole treatment but it must be applied in an approved and supervised commercial treatment plant.

“Some suppliers have similar DIY products. Go to the TPAA website at www.tpaa.com. au and click on ‘contacts” and then into the sites of the supplier members.”

Sleepers treated with creosote.

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EVENTS

EuroWOOD 2013 engineered wood study tour

Program April 26-May 10 – Austria and Germany (including LIGNA Hannover Fair) FRIDAY, APRIL 26: Depart – Sydney / Auckland. Saturday, April 27: Arrive Dubai. O/nite Dubai. Sunday, April 28: Arrive Vienna.

Rest day.

Monday, April 29: Breakfast*.Morning visit Dascanova, Mooslackengasse 17, Vienna. The Dascanova Co.´s R&D team has developed many different concepts over the last year. Currently, the team has been working on two sub-projects – the first is new MDF panels technology; the second, special distribution of modification agent. A prototype of the MDF modification has been running in the laboratories in Vienna since April 2012. The goal is to start the industrial MDF modification during 2013. [The Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic),a research partner, has been working on the optimising the density distribution inside the woodbased material].

Dascanova technology is saving wood-based panel producers up to 30% on raw materials (wood particles, resin and other chemical components) as well as saving on the energy required for production processes, such as fibre drying.

Lunch at Dascanova HQ. Afternoon free.

Tuesday, April 30: Breakfast*. Depart Vienna for Graz – the student city – 200 km southwest of Vienna. Lunch stop. Dinner* and o/nite stay Graz. Visit Institute for Timber Engineering and Wood Technology, Graz University, a world leader in CLT building technology. CLT construction technology began in Austria over a decade ago. University professor Dr.Gerhard Schickhofer will address a seminar on the European experience of building with the

new material and the challenges met, as well as current research topics and advanced design with CLT. Lunch at university. Dinner*.

O/nite stay Graz.

Wednesday, May 1: Breakfast*. Travel to Salzburg. Lunch* Salzburg Castle; tour of Old Town. O/nite Salzburg. Evening free.

Thursday, May 2: Breakfast*. Travel to Stuttgart. Visit Weinmann Group (partner and subsidiary of Homag) at St. Johann-Lonsingen in the Swabian Alps south of Stuttgart to inspect factorybuilt prefabricated housing and cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction methods. Lunch at Weinmann. Evening free. O/nite Stuttgart.

Friday, May 3: Breakfast* Travel to Black Forest. Visit the Homag Group at Schopfloch in the northern part of Germany’s Black Forest. Homag is a global player represented in more than 100 countries. It is a leader in the field of machinery and manufacturing for panel processing, structural timber frame housing construction, producing solutions from stand-alone machines to complete production lines. Lunch at Homag. Return to Stuttgart. Evening free. O/nite Stuttgart.

Saturday, May 4: Breakfast* Depart for Hannover. Lunch* and tourist locations along way.

Sunday, May 5: Rest day Hannover. Day free Monday-Friday, May 6-10: LIGNA Hannover 2013 Fair. Breakfast* each day. FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 10: Farewell dinner* at hotel.

Saturday, May 11: Breakfast*. Depart for Australia, New Zeland or other optional destinations. (Post-tour visits to industry in Finland can be arranged).

Visit the World of Engineered Wood .. join the EuroWOOD 2013 study tour APRIL 26 – MAY 10, 2013 This fact-finding, fully-escorted 16-day tour of Austria and Germany starts in Vienna and concludes at LIGNA Hannover

EuroWOOD2013 is supported by the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia (EWPAA), in collaboration with other industry bodies and companies.

The study tour will inspect the latest technologies of factory-built prefabricated housing and cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction methods, revolutionary MDF processes, wood panel processing, structural timber frame housing construction, and all the machinery that puts it together.

Generous time has been allotted to rest, relax and enjoy Austrian and German tourist locations along the way while travelling by luxury coach and staying at top hotels.

Tour limited to 32 participants, including professional industry tour guides.

Travel consultant: Harvey World Travel, Shop 18, Fountain Plaza, The Entrance Rd, Erina NSW 2250 Tel: 02 4365 2337.

For a full itinerary and payment details, contact the EuroWOOD 2013 Secretariat, PO Box 330, Hamilton Central Q 4007 or email eurowood13@bigpond.com Advertising: Tel +61 7 3266 1429 Email: cancon@bigpond.net.au

* Tax deductible industry tour

$7550* (+gst) p.p. or $9370* (+gst) single includes all airfares, ground travel and most meals, including entry to the famous LIG NAHannover Fair from May 6-1

issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 13

FORESTRY AND FOREST MACHINERY

Women play pivotal role Industry sisterhood making real contributions

Catrina Hodgkinson

Lisa Marty

YOU may recall that a while ago I mentioned some of those I thought were among the standout performers in our timber and forest industry.

My idea – and I got pretty positive feedback – was to recognise a few making a real contribution to current industry issues.

Among those getting my gold star citation was Lisa Marty, chief executive of the Victorian Forest Industry Association.

Her name has prompted the suggestion that I say something about the importance of and need to strengthen the sisterhood in an industry so long dominated by men.

I reckon indifferent male performance in some areas of the industry is an issue.

Personally, I have been on the lookout for a good man in the industry for some time and I have to say without much success. Perhaps my expectations are too high, but I think more broadly the performance of some of our male leaders in the industry has not been up to scratch.

So hello – is there anyone out there? Send me an image (hard hat optional) and copy of your last bank statement!

Sorry, I digress. I really want to mention something about the contribution of women to the industry. So back to the sisterhood..

I wanted to start by saying that NSW Primary Industry

Page 14 | issue 249 | 26.11.12

Linda Sewell

Minister Katrina Hodgkinson has impressed. Since she has been in the job she has taken a cautious, measured approach to addressing the challenges in front of the forest industry in her state. This task was made doubly difficult on a number of fronts by the previous government’s inept performance, including the sleight-of-hand by the then Premier Bob Carr in transferring forest allocated to production to reserves as the ink on the North Coast regional forest agreement was still drying.

The signing of long-term log supply contracts based on regional forest agreement figures was always going to get the industry into trouble.

Not surprisingly, the chickens from Bob Carr’s decisions are now coming home to roost.

So recent action by Katrina in establishing a forest taskforce to work through key issues and her decision to recalibrate Forests NSW to give it much

The subtleties of forest industry advocacy, politics, decision-making and corporate performance would be much improved if more women were at the top of the corporate and industry ladder

Kate Carnell

Kersten Gentle

Deep in the Woods with ..

Cheryle Forrester needed commercial and operational independence are in my opinion both big steps in the right direction and reflect credit on her grasp and handling of the forestry portfolio.

Well done Katrina.

Some others in the sisterhood making real contributions include Linda Sewell, chief executive of Hancock Victorian Plantations. In addition to the challenges of heading a large plantation business in tough times she has made an outstanding contribution to industry affairs, like for example, leading the merger between the National Association of Forest

Michele Allan

Industries and the Australian Plantation Products and Paper Council to form the Australian Forest Products Association.

Others, like former NAFI boss and current chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry Kate Carnell; the impressive and forthright Judy Tilling of Tilling Timber; Kersten Gentle heading up the Frame and Truss Manufacturers Association; and Forest and Wood Products Australia Board member Michele Allan are all putting their shoulder to the wheel.

In my humble opinion the subtleties of forest industry advocacy, politics, decisionmaking and corporate performance would be much improved if more women were at their top of the corporate and industry representative ladder.

For the long-term commercial prospects and winning a much-needed community and political social licence across both urban and regional Australia, we would be well served if the sisterhood played a greater role.

So in the board room some more like Kate Carnell and Michele Allan; at a senior corporate level some more Linda Sewells and Judy Tillings; and in industry associations some others to support the work of Lisa Marty and Kersten Gentle.

Interested if you agree? Catch up again in a couple of weeks.

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PERSONALITIES

Super wood scientist Jack Norton up and away, but he’s still circling

By ROBIN DOWDING

WELL-KNOWN timber preservation industry identity Jack Norton has left Brisbane’s Eco-Sciences Centre for the last time, after 42 years of researching timber and its utilisation in service.

About 50 friends and workmates turned up to wish Jack bon-voyage at a farewell get-together last week at the centre.

A number of Jack’s colleagues recalled his past ‘wins’ in successfully “breaking down the frontiers of science” for the timber industry which including being instrumental in introducing the now well-known, H or Hazard identification standard for treated timber, first used in Queensland.

This standard is now recognised throughout the world as the

They came to wish him well .. three generations of the Nortons, Jack with son Dan and grandchildren George and Josh.

prime standard.

Over the years Jack’s sense of humour has become legendary.

This has caused him to don many different mantles, mainly concocted by himself.

He was ‘Kaptain Chaos’ back in the early 80s when he was running plant operator courses for timber treatment operators.

Then it was the ‘Prince of Darkness’ followed by ‘Black Jack’ as many of his colleagues remember.

And not forgetting, of course, the well-known and loved ‘Super Scientist’ breaking down the frontiers of science to save mankind.

But dear reader, do not be fooled. Behind this jocular and popular façade lies a serious scientist, well respected throughout the industry in Australia and internationally.

Jack is known for being

Also with 42 years service to the industry under his belt, Colin MacKenzie of Timber Queensland (left) reflects on Jack Norton’s colourful past.

committees.

“If there is an opportunity to use my skills in a consultancy role I will be only too happy to do so.”

This time space also allows Jack to follow another passion – to travel and explore the world with his wife Marilyn.

Jack made it clear that he will not be standing down quietly; there are plenty of opportunities out there for him to use his hard-earned skills and knowledge for the benefit of the industry he loves.

Tested for kryptonite .. Super Jack – coming to you from a treated timber telephone booth somewhere.

passionate about his job in science and timber in particular.

All of the speakers at Jack’s send off last week applauded the fact that whenever good timber advice or assistance was needed, Jack was always first to the fore with his expertise and was never found wanting in his willingness to help.

Jack Norton is still the president of the International Research Group (IRG) and will remain so until 2013, after which he plans to continue with postpresidency duties. When asked about the future, Jack said: “I want to continue in the industry.

I’m still a member of TPAA and wish to remain so. Plus I am on some Australian Standards

Jack the ‘Super Scientist’ or ‘Kaptain Chaos’, which ever you prefer, may have left the building, but not the industry.

There are still new frontiers to explore.

Go for it, Jack.

Michael Kennedy, general manager, Horticulture and Forestry Science (left) who has been working with Jack Norton for more than 40 years, presents a gift from Jack’s colleagues at Eco-Sciences.

Mixed response to SA timber funds offer

FAMILY First MLC Robert Brokenshire says a South Australian government assistance package offered to all south-east timber mills was a step in the right direction.

The government is offering a $27 million package to all mills

because it could not come to an agreement to give the package to Carter Holt Harvey.

Mr Brokenshire said the funding was welcome but more money was still needed.

“What they’ve done is ripped hundreds of millions of dollars

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of money out of the southeast so they can build stadiums in Adelaide,” he said.

Union representative Travis Lawson said Carter Holt Harvey rejected the money for a reason.

“They were upfront about it

from day one. This bailout money is not going to fix the problem,” he said. “The problem highlighted by us has always been the log pricing.”

Al mills in the southeast, including Carter Holt Harvey, can apply for the funding.

issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 15

Prefabs sprout as uK embraces quick-build timber-frame houses You won’t need an Allen key for this assembly

THE British building giant Persimmon has seen the future.

And it’s flat, pre-constructed and modelled on the car industry Despite Ikea’s involvement in the development of modern flat-pack housing, you won’t need an Allen key for assembly; you won’t even have to put it together yourself.

After the Swedish company experimented with a prefab village in Gateshead five years ago, Persimmon, one of Britain’s biggest house building companies, is investing heavily in prefabricated housing.

Understandably, Persimmon doesn’t like the term prefab because it conjures up images of low-quality postwar buildings destined to be knocked down in a few years’ time. The company prefers to talk about “second-generation closedpanel timber-frame” housing.

The York-based house builder acquired the Space4 timber frame factory at Castle

The advantage of making a fully insulated house shell in a factory is clear: it takes a day or two to assemble and a further six to eight weeks to fully kit it out, plumb and wire it – the windows and doors as well as the interiors are fitted on site PAgE 16 | issuE 249 | 26.11.12

Britain’s biggest house building companies are investing heavily in prefabricated housing.

Bromwich, near Birmingham, as part of its takeover of a smaller rival, Westbury, in 2006.

The factory sold more than 3250 timber-frame home kits last year, a 19% rise on the previous year, supplying just over a third of Persimmon’s homes.

Despite a lack of mortgage

finance, demand for new-build homes is holding steady, thanks to the government’s First Buy and Funding for Lending schemes, rival house builders Taylor Wimpey, Redrow and Bovis Homes say.

You can’t tell a Space4 timber kit house from a bricksand-mortar one, because

A growing number of German timber frame companies such as Huf Haus have entered the British market for prefab housing.

Persimmon adds cladding to make them look like traditional homes, under its Charles Church and Westbury brands.

The company reckons it will build 3500 this year. It has been making three-storey houses, student digs and apartment blocks in this way, including 63 social housing units in Liverpool.

Persimmon isn’t the only company building prefabricated houses. Ikea built Britain’s first flat-pack hamlet in the form of St James Village, Gateshead, in 2007, together with the building firm Live Smart @ Home. The 93 Scandinavian-style BoKlok homes, a mix of one- and twobedroom flats and two- and three-bedroom houses, were aimed at young professionals and families (households earning between $A22,930 and $A53,450 a year). Priced at between $A152,100 and $A228,540 and sold on a shared ownership or outright sale basis, they were snapped up quickly.

BoKlok (BoKlok is Swedish for ‘smart living’) is a joint venture between Ikea and the Swedish construction giant Skanska.

Ikea says that while it has no imminent plans for more prefab housing projects in Britain, Skanska will build any future villages.

“The UK is an interesting market for us,” says Ewa Magnusson, marketing manager at BoKlok.

“We’re considering it. If we re-enter, we would do it with Skanska.”

Ikea also approached Space4 Cont Page 17

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INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

With new environmental regulations kicking in next year, house builders are working to make their houses greener From Page 16

about teaming up but no deal was reached.

The idea that these are flimsy, flat-pack houses is given short shrift. BoKlok points out that they are soundproofed, with high ceilings, low energy heating and insulation, and come with an eco-homes ‘excellent’ rating.

Not surprisingly, the openplan interiors look a bit like an Ikea catalogue. They come with laminate flooring and Ikea kitchens, and each buyer was given a $A380 voucher and a free consultation with an Ikea interior designer.

While BoKlok houses have a limited choice of colour and cladding types, Persimmon’s Space4 arm has come up with more than 1000 different CADdesigned timber-frame house types.

The advantage of making a fully insulated house shell in a factory is clear: it takes a day or two to assemble and a further six to eight weeks to fully kit it out, plumb and wire it – the windows and doors as well as the interiors are fitted on site – while a traditional home takes 14 to 16 weeks to build.

And builders are less reliant on good weather.

The Space4 factory is modelled on the car industry.

The Midlands has traditionally been an automotive hub, and the majority of the Space4 workers previously worked for car makers such as Land Rover, Rover or Peugeot.

Hagan himself used to work in the car industry, and brought a similar shift operation and level

A pre-fabricated house panel sits on a machine at the Space4 factory, operated by Persimmon Homes.

of automation to the housing factory to sharpen up the process.

It takes just an hour to manufacture a house, with external and internal wall panels and floors being produced on three different production lines simultaneously. The factory has capacity to manufacture more than 8000 houses a year, so production could easily be ramped up in response to rising demand.

With the government’s drive towards zero-carbon housing by 2016, the environmental credentials of a ‘fabric-first’ approach are the key (in contrast to a traditional house, to which solar panels, wind turbines and air source heat pumps are added later).

Persimmon says a Space4 home is 50% more energy

efficient than a traditional house, and cosier to live in. Improved insulation and air tightness mean that the average heating bill is $A550 a year, compared with $A1100 for existing homes.

It’s mainly down to the pink phenolic foam insulation that is injected into the timber-house frame and combined with a thin membrane, while wood is a good natural insulator in itself.

Phenolic foam is also fire resistant; it will not spread the flames, and it gives out only minimal toxic fumes.

With new environmental regulations kicking in next year, other house builders are also working to make their houses greener.

Other countries, such as Germany, build predominantly in timber. Timber frames

The company regularly builds its show homes on new sites in less than 42 days, so speed of build is not a problem

account for 70% of all new houses built around the world, but just 25% of new housing in the UK. Nigel Greenaway, who heads Persimmon’s southern division, says his son, who lives in a two-bedroom Space4 house in Devon, pays just $A1.50 a day for heating and electricity, and has tiny radiators. At a time of surging energy bills, this is certainly very appealing.

“We believe we’ve got a real steal on the competition,” he says.

Other UK house builders have looked at making timber-frame homes but decided it wasn’t for them. Barratt, which was once Britain’s largest house builders, abandoned timber-framed construction after suffering some bad press in the early 1980s that led to sales halving.

Space4 supplied other house builders including Bellway, Taylor Wimpey and David Wilson in the past, but now supplies only Persimmon.

Taylor Wimpey’s own timberframe division, Prestoplan, is a small part of its business.

Meanwhile, a growing number of German timber frame companies such as Huf Haus and Baufritz have entered the British market for housing.

The family-run Huf Haus, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, has built about 180 prefab houses in the UK since arriving 11 years ago.

Prices start at $A687,915.

David Ritchie, chief executive of Bovis Homes, believes that a traditionally built ‘brick and block’ home remains the preference of many British homebuyers.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE Items provided in this section of Timber & Forestry E news are drawn from a number of sources. The source of the item is quoted, either by publication or organizations in line with the practice of fair reporting.

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issue 249 | 26.11.12 | Page 17

EVENTS

Troubled times, but forest industry still a good investment: VAFI CEO

MORE than 240 representatives of he forest and wood products industry, government, academia and media gathered at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries’ annual dinner at the Park Hyatt in Melbourne on November 16.

VAFI chief executive Lisa Marty said it has been a difficult year for the industry, with the strong dollar, cheap imports and a depressed housing sector.

“We have moved to a new type of operating environment that is high cost with strong import competition,” Ms Marty said.

“We are also changing the way we build, which presents both challenges and opportunities.

“Despite these serious challenges, our members have continued to invest in their businesses this year, putting on average nearly $4 million each on the renewal on capital equipment.

“New equipment, such as finger jointing, sanding and lamination equipment, was also installed at considerable cost, and investments were made in a number of renewable bioenergy projects.

“In addition, the largest sawn hardwood processing plant in Victoria was sold by Gunns Ltd to Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, ensuring it has a strong future.

“Australian Paper also recently announced a $90 million investment in a recycled paper plant as part of its paper manufacturing plant at Maryvale in the Latrobe Valley, demonstrating a commitment to the future of its business, the local economy and environmental sustainability.”

Ms Marty said VAFI was committed to building on these investments and encouraged the industry to continue to adapt and innovate by leading a project to investigate Innovation and Investment

Page 18 | issue 249 | 26.11.12

Arbuthnot Sawmills, the last remaining mill along the Murray River using high quality red gum sawlogs harvested from state forests, was awarded the Innovation Award at the VAFI annual dinner. The Victorian Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Peter Walsh (second from left) presents the award to the Arbuthnot team Paul Madden, John Eberbach, Simon Oster, Peter Hunter and Alexander Arbuthnot. A full report on the awards will appear in the next issue of Timber&Forestry enews.

Pathways in the Victorian Hardwood Processing Industry.

“This project provides a framework for innovation by businesses and the industry based on an analysis of our wood availability, our market dynamics and our current industry structure.”

Ms Marty said she believed the industry was well-placed to build a sustainable future.

“Our products are the environmental choice: they are renewable, store carbon and use less energy to produce than other materials,” she said.

“We manage our forests responsibly and we support an important local manufacturing sector.”

The Victorian forest and wood products industry generates $7.5 billion in sales and services income and directly employs 24,000 people.

The night provided guests with the opportunity to network and celebrate the achievements of

at the dinner.

The event was made possible by its sponsors, which included the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and industry superannuation fund, First Super.

The dinner also saw the launch of the Victorian Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Newly-elected VAFI president Julian Mathers addresses the conference dinner.

the industry over the past year.

Keynote speaker was Victorian Minister for Agriculture and Food Security Peter Walsh.

The 2012 VAFI Sustainability Report ― an overview of the progress made towards building a sustainable forest and wood products industry in Victoria ― was also launched

’Industry is well-placed to build a sustainable future’ – Lisa Marty

This is a bipartisan group convened by Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry and Fisheries Gary Blackwood and former Minister for Agriculture and Member for Ripon Joe Helper.

VAFI CEO Lisa Marty will be the industry liaison to the group, which will provide a forum where Members of State Parliament can meet with representatives from industry, and learn more about its importance to their electorates and the state.

• VAFI awards for industry achievement and presentation photos will appear in next week’s issue of Timber & Forestry enews.

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Classified Ad Custom Publishing Group Advertising: Tel 3266 1429 Email: Email: cancon@bigpond.net.au cancon@bigpond.net.au Advertising: Tel +61 +61 77 3266 1429 e: timberandforestenews@bigpond.com e: timberandforestenews@bigpond.com

Production T: 0439 417 671 ISSUE 203 || 26.11.12 12.12.11 || Page PAGE 19 15 issue 249 e: kerri@mycustompublishing.com.au

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