The pulp mill and the forests

How much wood will the pulp mill consume?

Typical rainforest understorey of carbon-rich eucalypt forest in Tasmania. Logging coupe RS 142E, Tombstone Creek, North East Tasmania, clearfelled Feb/Mar2005, burnt April 2006. Photo: Rob Blakers

At full capacity, the pulp mill will consume 4.5 million tonnes of wood per annum – 4 million tonnes for pulping and 500,000 tonnes for burning in a wood-fired power station.[i]

How much of this will be from native forests and how much from plantations?

At start-up, 80% of the mill’s logs will come from native forests.[ii] This is projected to decrease to 20% over 10 years as plantations are phased in.

However, there is no guarantee that Gunns’ projected phase-in of plantations will occur. If Gunns’ projections of supply from plantations are not realised, because of factors caused by global warming like reduced rainfall or increased bushfires, the shortfall will almost certainly be met by more logging of native forests.

Meanwhile, Gunns’ huge private plantation estate at Hampshire south of Burnie is not destined for the pulp mill. Gunns plan to export this as premium woodchips while the pulp mill remains heavily reliant on native forests all of its life.[iii]

What area of forest will be logged to feed the pulp mill?

The figures from Gunns’ project information show that the pulp mill will consume over 32 million tonnes of native forest over a period of 25 years.

Using current average tonnes per hectare rates, The Wilderness Society has calculated, conservatively, that the logging to feed the pulp mill will destroy over 200,000 hectares of forest, the equivalent of over 100,000 MCGs .

That is a total of 2000 square kilometres or comparable to a 10-kilometre-wide strip of forest stretching from Hobart to Launceston.

Will wildlife be threatened by logging for the pulp mill?

Giant freshwater lobster, Astacopsis Gouldi.

Yes. Logging of Tasmania’s native forests will push many species closer to extinction.

Experts have warned that the combination of logging and persecution could make the wedge-tail eagle extinct in north-east Tasmania.[iv]

Other species such as the giant freshwater lobster, spotted tail quoll and the Tasmania devil will lose critical habitat to feed Gunns’ pulp mill and could face local extinction due to pulp production.

Will oldgrowth forest be consumed in the pulp mill?

Gunns claims that no oldgrowth forest as defined by the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) will be pulped in the mill. However, this pledge has a number of holes:

• Gunns told the Wilderness Society in August 2006 that there is no upper limit on the age of trees that can pulped by the mill.[v] There is therefore no technological impediment to pulping oldgrowth.

• Oldgrowth will be burnt in the massive wood-fired power generator.
• The RFA definition of oldgrowth is very narrow and excludes many forests that contain very old trees and many areas that have never been logged before.
• Every other major assurance about the pulp mill has been broken. There is therefore every reason to suspect that, once the mill is up and running, the ‘no oldgrowth’ promise will be incrementally discarded and watered down.
• Remember, oldgrowth logging is not being phased out in Tasmania and woodchips from these forests will still be exported to Japanese paper companies in huge quantities.

Will logging of Tasmania’s native forests increase to feed the pulp mill?

Gunns’ current rate of woodchip exports is 3.4 million tonnes per annum.[vi] As the pulp mill’s consumption of wood will be greater than current levels of woodchip production, Gunns’ claims logging will not intensify are wrong.

Independent consultants to the original assessment body the RPDC agree that logging will intensify in Tasmania.

Gunns’ information shows that the rate of woodchip production to feed the pulp mill AND its export woodchip plants increase to 6.8 million tonnes per annum.[vii]  While this includes a component of plantation woodchips,  logging native forests, including oldgrowth will continue, at a time when protecting them for their carbon storage is critically important to combat climate change.

Will the ‘lunacy’ of export woodchipping end if the pulp mill goes ahead?

Premier Lennon claims that the pulp mill’s approval will ‘end the lunacy’ of exporting our woodchips to Japan. Export woodchipping is lunacy, however there is no plan by Government of Gunns to end it. Gunns’ woodchip-export mills at Triabunna and Hampshire will continue to operate, consuming oldgrowth forests and high conservation-value forests and plantations.

Wood- fired power in Tasmania

There are currently three proposals to burn native forests to generate electricity in Tasmania. There are two proposals by Forestry Tasmania, one in the South and another in the North West. The power generator attached to the pulp mill is the third, consigning a total of half a million tonnes of forest products each year.

Burning native forests is not a renewable energy option and would be a disaster for Tasmania’s forests and climate change in general.

Most mainland Australian states have ruled out burning forests as a power generation option and a leading Australian promoter of renewable energy, GreenPower have stated they would not accept electricity generated using native forests.

How many of Tasmania’s forests are protected from logging?

Cradle tree, Blue Tier, Tasmania. Photo: Kip Nunn

30% of Tasmania’s original area of forest is protected; 70% has been totally destroyed or remains unprotected and threatened with logging. The pulp mill will lock in destruction of our forests, especially in the north and north east. Areas directly threatened by the pulp mill include the Great Western Tiers, North-East Highlands, Ben Lomond forests, Eastern Tiers and the South-East.[viii]

Click here to find out how you can visit Tasmania’s threatened forests.

[i] Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement, Vol. 1: 6-243

[ii] Figure 6-19, Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement, Vol. 1: 6-243

[iii] Transport and Traffic Assessment, Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement

[iv] University of Melbourne and Forestry Tasmania; Bekessytranscripts, Wielangta court case 2006.

[v] Briefing by Gunns Ltd., 17 August 2006

[vi] Gunns Ltd Annual Report 2006-07

[vii] Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement, Vol. 1: 6-249

[viii] Bell Bay Pulp Mill, Draft Integrated Impact Statement, Vol. 1:6-228, 238