WWF-Australia | Forestry transition and regional employment

To start, we created a spatial representation of the public native forest logging sector. The analysis contained information on state forest logging zones and Forestry Corporation of NSW’s (FCNSW) public native forest timber customers. We also identified the location and scale of FCNSW’s softwood and hardwood plantations and customers.

We found that the public native forest sector is spread across NSW, with areas of relative concentration in the far south and north coasts of the state. See the figure to the left where the red circles represent the location and volume of demand:

• The north coast is characterised by approximately 41 hardwood customers, with 80% being supplied less than 15,000m per annum, likely from a mix of native forest and hardwood plantation sources.
• In the far south, demand for native forest hardwood is dominated by the Eden timber processing facility, which primarily processes native forest resource into woodchip for export.

Secondly, we conducted an analysis of market trends in public native forestry, finding that the sector is likely that to continue it’s decline. It faces a range of challenges including a reduction in wood supply, climate risks, the establishment of new conservation estates, competition from softwood products, and a substitution of native hardwood for plantation hardwood in international markets.

We note that as a result of the discovery of significant data errors in FCNSW’s biomaterial reports, made after this work was completed, the level of public native forest harvesting activity is significantly lower than previously disclosed.

Thirdly, we analysed the economies of two regions – the Bega Valley Shire, and Port Macquarie-Hastings:

• Bega Valley Shire: The transition out of public native forest logging has to a large extent already occurred. Now almost entirely focused on the chipping of pulplogs for export, with sawmilling activity having largely exited. The regional economy appears to have shown the capacity to adapt to these changes over time.
• Port Macquarie-Hastings: Public native forest logging predominately supports sawmilling activity, complemented by hardwood plantations. The region’s economic diversification and historic growth profile suggest it is well placed to adapt to change.

In both regions, forestry-related jobs make up a small share of employment—around 0.5% in Wood Product Manufacturing and 0.2%–0.8% in Forestry and Logging. Public native forest logging employment is a subset of this.