Wood supply deal confirms controversial native forest feedstock for pulp mill

The Wilderness Society (Tasmania) inc
Media Release
1 December 2008

The extension of the controversial native forest-based wood supply deal for Gunns’ pulp mill increases the uncertainty of the mill by locking in dependence on a highly controversial resource that promises decades of public protest over forest exploitation in Tasmania.

This should add to investor and joint venture scepticism of the viability of the project and severely compromises Tasmania’s ability to respond to the climate change challenge.

 “The extension of the deal to supply 1.5 million tonnes of wood from publicly-owned forests for 20 years confirms Wilderness Society fears that the mill will be heavily reliant on native forests,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for The Wilderness Society. “This will not sit well with investors and joint venture partners.”

“Renegotiating the wood supply deal was Gunns’ chance to prove its proposed mill is 100% plantation-based, but this extension shows that claim was nothing more than a con and that pulping native forests is a long-term part of the pulp mill plan.”

Premier Bartlett, who established a deadline to end all government support for the mill, has been undermined by his government’s forest manager which has allocated publicly-owned native forests for decades. This will seriously hamper Tasmania’s ability to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, targets that could be easily achieved by protecting carbon rich native forests from logging.

“Forestry Tasmania has stepped over Bartlett’s line in the sand,” continued Mr Bayley. “Forestry Tasmania has become a rogue agency that is snubbing its nose at the Premier.”

“The opportunity to heal the social conflict over forest destruction has also taken a blow through the confirmation of decades of native forest logging. This should concern all Tasmanian’s, especially the Premier, who has acknowledged the division the pulp mill has created and has promised Tasmanians a positive way forward.”

Can Forestry Tasmania supply the agreed wood supply volumes in plantation timber?

No.

FT has published forward projection figures for wood supply availability that indicate that there will only ever be a maximum annual supply of less than 500,000 tonnes of plantation pulpwood available from public land.(1) (see figure above from FT’s statewide Forest Management Plan)

This maximum amount of plantation pulp wood available fluctuates slightly but is consistently less than 500,000 tonnes per year until the end of the projection period, the year 2100. FT has made a commitment to stop converting native forest to plantation (although they are yet to stop) which means the state-owned plantation resource will not expand much beyond current levels, supporting the projected maximum availability.

This means that the balance of the contracted volume, a minimum of over 1 million tonnes of woodchips per year, can only come from publicly owned native forests managed by FT.

(1)   Forestry Tasmania wood supply projection graph ...
 http://www.forestrytas.com.au/news/2008/10/bright-future-for-forestry page 20