Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 16—Forestry and fishing 653
This growth resulted in an increase of almost 8%
over the 1998 total plantation. Of the increase in
new plantations in 1999, 89% was hardwood and
11% softwood.
Tree ownership in the 1999 plantation estate in
Australia was equally distributed between public
and private. A further 8% is held in joint private
and public ownership. Of the new areas planted
in 1999, 83% were planted by private tree owners,
10% by joint owners and 7% by public tree
owners. Of the 1999 plantation estate, 58% is on
public land and 42% on private land. The majority
of new areas planted in 1999 were on private
land, with only 10% on public land.
The 3-year National Farm Forest Inventory
(NFFI) program, established by the NFI and the
Commonwealth Farm Forestry Program in
1998, will report on farm-forest plantation
resources. Together, the NFFI (farm forest
plantations) and the NPI (large-scale plantations)
will provide a comprehensive picture of the
plantation resource in Australia.
Governments in 1992, Australia is committed to
expanding its plantation estate to provide
additional resources for the forestry sector.
The Commonwealth Government has supported
the expansion of Australia’s plantation resource
base for many years. For instance, the National
Afforestation Program (NAP) was established in
1987–88 as a three year grants program to
stimulate an expansion in the commercial
hardwood timber resource and to assist in land
rehabilitation through broadacre commercial
plantations (including farm forestry).
The Commonwealth Government has continued
to support and stimulate commercial plantation
development on cleared agricultural land through
the Farm Forestry Program (FFP) and the
Community Rainforest Reafforestation Program
(CRRP). The Government announced the
implementation of a range of measures to
encourage plantation and farm forestry
development in the Wood and Paper Industry
Strategy, issued in December 1995.
Under the National Forest Policy Statement
(NFPS) agreed to by the Commonwealth
Government and the State and Territory
Thinking ‘green’ in 1901
At the start of the 20th century, each State of
the Commonwealth (except Tasmania) had
established forestry departments. The following
extract from the Official Year Book of the
Commonwealth of Australia, 1901–1907
outlines their objective as follows: “Economic
Forestry, aiming at the conservation of forestal
wealth by safeguarding forests against
inconsiderate destruction, and by the suitable
re-afforestation of denuded areas, is essential
to the preservation of industries dependent
upon an adequate supply of timber, and to
the perpetuation of a necessary form of
national wealth”.
While the concept of conservation was well
known a hundred years ago, modern day critics
of forestry policy would suggest that the
principles of conservation have not been well
practised, given the deforestation programs of
the last century. However, criticism of the
outcomes of past policies is not new; the
1901–1907 Year Book laments: “Though in
Australia large areas of virgin forests still remain,
the inroads made by timber-getters, by
agriculturalists, and by pastoralists—who have
destroyed large areas by ‘ring-barking’—are
considerable; and it is not unlikely that
climatological changes are caused hereby”.
This reference to climate changes has a strong
1990s ‘feel’ in its sentiment, if not its language.
With supporting evidence, the argument is
developed: “For it would appear that variations
in climate, and alternating periods of drought
and flood, desiccation and erosion of soil, with
loss or diminution of fertility, have resulted
from forest denudation in countries bordering
the Mediterranean. In many of the States of
America, diminished rainfall is said to have
followed the destruction of large forest areas”.
In conclusion, the Year Book of 1901–1907
observes that “...beneficial consequences appear
also to have followed on the planting of trees on
denuded lands, or along encroaching coasts,
and it is obvious that a forest covering tends to
beneficially regulate the effects of rainfall”.