The future of the Tasmanian Specialty Timber sector has been secured under the Tasmanian
Government’s recently passed Rebuilding the Forestry Industry Bill 2014.

The sector, which employs over 2000 people full time and contributes over $70M to the
state’s economy, welcomes the opportunity provided for the formulation of a new special
timbers management plan to be developed within 3 years. This plan will provide the sector
with a resource assessment, demand analysis and yield calculations to sustain the industry
in perpetuity. The new plan will be developed with stakeholder consultation and public
comment.

Andrew Denman, spokesperson for the Tasmanian Special Timbers Alliance said;
“This legislation goes a long way in repairing the damage the TFA did to the specialty timber
sector. For many years, the industry has wanted to pursue a tread widely, tread lightly
approach and the formulation of the new management plan will have this concept at its
core.”

Despite irresponsible claims by environment groups that the new legislation has opened up
1.5M ha of reserve areas for selective harvesting of specialty timbers and that this will
“annihilate” the forests, Mr Denman says this is simply not true;

“The Nature Conservation Act and the National Parks and Reserves Management Act have
always allowed for the controlled use of natural resources in these areas – including timber
harvesting and mining. The repealed TFA legislation that environment groups want to
support actually goes further, allowing for harvesting not only in Nature Conservation Areas
and Regional Reserves but also on any other land in Tasmania including World Heritage
Areas. To say that harvesting in reserves is a new concept under the 2014 Bill is wrong,
misinformed and only stated to mislead the public.”

Claims by opponents of the new Bill that specialty timber harvesting will impact on Forestry
Tasmania’s bid for FSC are just scaremongering and completely untrue. Mr Denman again;
“FSC international have been quite clear in their advice that harvesting in areas of “old
growth” is not precluded at all and in fact, FSC international certifies forest operations
throughout the world in “old growth” areas such as Sweden, Canada, Russia and the
Amazon. It is really about the management of High Conservation Values whilst harvesting in
these areas, not a blanket ban.”

“Specialty timbers are already certified through the Fine Timbers Tasmania Chain of Custody
System which operates under the Australian Forestry Standard. The Australian Forestry
Standard is endorsed by the world’s largest timber certifying program – The Programme for
the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).”

The Special Timbers Alliance is looking forward to working with the newly formed
Ministerial Advisory Council to develop a robust special timbers management plan that will
take this iconic Tasmanian industry into the future.
Andrew Denman, spokesperson for the Tasmanian Special Timbers Alliance