30 August 2022
Today is National Forestry Day – a day to celebrate all the great work done by NSW’s forest industries and the enormous contribution they make to our everyday lives, the Australian Forest Products Association of NSW said today.
“NSW’s forest industries employ more than 20,000 people across the state and contribute more than $8 billion annually to the NSW economy,” AFPA NSW CEO Victor Violante said.
“Across more than 400,000 hectares of timber plantations, and our multi-use state forests managed for sustainable hardwood timber production, NSW forest industries replace every tree harvested to provide a perpetual carbon sink that is making an enormous contribution to NSW’s net zero emissions goal – wood really is the ultimate renewable material.”
National Forestry Day also notionally marks the end of the timber plantation replanting season, during which the Australian timber plantation industry replants around 70 million trees every year. In NSW, thanks to a turbocharged replanting effort since the 2019-20 bushfires, more than 40 million trees have been replanted by hand over the past two winters.
“Most of NSW’s almost 400,000 hectares of commercial timber plantations are radiata pine trees that are used to make our house frames, cardboard packaging, fences and a range of other essential, renewable products,” Mr Violante said.
NSW forest industries are responsible for:
• $8 billion of national economic contribution annually
• 20,000 direct local jobs and tens of thousands more of indirect jobs
• Planting more than 20 million new trees in 2022
• Supplying essential and renewable products, from house-frames and structural timber to furniture and floorboards and paper and cardboard
“Australia’s forest industries are also helping fight climate change, with trees absorbing carbon as they grow and locking it up in the products that are made.
“This National Forestry Day let’s celebrate all that’s good about Australian forestry and be proud of the environmental, economic and social contribution they make state and nation-wide,” Mr Violante concluded.