Timber plantations deliver opportunites to regional areas.
Timber plantations are an agricultural crop like wheat, cotton, orchards or vegetables, and are now officially recognised as such by the Queensland Government. However, unlike traditional crops community attitudes towards timber plantations are strikingly diverse. Some people embrace the idea, some oppose, and others find one type of timber plantation more acceptable than another.
What people in rural and regional areas do want are jobs and services. Establishing a plantation timber industry in rural districts provides economic diversity, especially for those regions that have been in decline.
How do plantations help communities develop and prosper?
Interstate regions where new a plantation industry has established have experienced positive outcomes for their communities. Studies undertaken to gauge socio-economic impacts of plantation development in regional communities across NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania found that the type and amount of employment generated by the sector grows, particularly as the plantations mature and harvesting and processing of wood products commences.
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PHASE |
WHERE ARE THE JOBS CREATED? |
FLOW ON EFFECTS |
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Establishing the plantation resource
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Plantation management companies, contracting services to sector (eg bulldozers) |
During all phases of plantation sector development spending by the sector and by suppliers and employees of the sector will general flow-on employment and and spending in the local economy. For example when plantations were established in the Great Southern region in Western Australia, every plantation sector job generated 0.65 jobs within the region.
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Transition in which some harvesting and processing of early planting occurs, along with ongoing establishment of new plantations |
Harvesting & processing sectors, short-term construction jobs created by establishment and upgrade of processing facilities, contracting services to sector continue to grow
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Maturing of the sector, in which the plantation resource is harvested on a rotational basis and a range of products are manufactured by processing facilities
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Processing sector, ongoing employment in plantation management, harvesting, transport
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Working together
The decline of traditional industries, population and services has shifted employment opportunities in rural and regional Queensland. The plantation industry offers some of these areas diversification opportunities which can add to economic development and local employment, rather than replace existing industries.
Timber plantation operators recognise that establishing a new industry in a new area has its challenges, and are willing to admit they haven’t always got it right. However, looking to the future the Queensland plantation sector has developed a Code of Practice for Commercial Plantation Operations which outline industry’s commitment to environmental practices and how the industry interacts with the local community.