Tasmania’s sustainable forest industry also supports broader community

Guy Barnett,Minister for Resources

The Tasmanian Liberal Government is proud of our sustainable timber industry which continues to operate at a profit and support thousands of jobs in Tasmania, many in regional communities.

Sustainable Timber Tasmania reported a total consolidated comprehensive income of $3.9 million for 2020-21 and an underlying net profit of $1.7 million, the fourth in a row.

This year, Sustainable Timber Tasmania paid $115 million to more than 673 Tasmanian businesses, supporting local communities, including $53 million to harvest and haulage contractors. Importantly, the sector helped keep regional Tasmanians employed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s value to the Tasmanian community extends well beyond operating at a profit.

Sustainable Timber Tasmania sowed nearly 90 million seeds to regrow forests for future generations and maintained almost 3,000km of roads to provide access to Permanent Timber Production Zone land for multiple uses including tourism businesses, bushwalking, mountain biking, hunting and fishing.

Sustainable Timber Tasmania also remains committed to protecting communities from the impacts of bushfires and in 2020-2021 contributed over 1,200 hours of firefighting activities while attending 24 bushfires.

There was also significant effort to drive continual improvements such as progressing forest monitoring utilising digital forest research, revising seed zoning systems to better manage future forest health and resilience and undertaking a range of habitat retention trials.

Our $1.2 billion sustainable forestry industry is world-class and the Tasmanian Government will continue to drive investment and create jobs in this vital sector to help secure Tasmania’s future.

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