Today is Australia's 4th annual National Forestry Day - a day to celebrate the enormous and positive contribution Australia's forestry and forest products sector and supply chain makes to Australia and the world!
"National Forestry Day also aims to raise awareness about our industries among policy and decision-makers, elected representatives and the general public about the many and varied benefits the sector provides," Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association Richard Hyett said today.
"Everyone remembers the shortage of toilet paper during COVID – just look around your home and you'll see and realise how important forestry is to everyday life. Timber house-frames, floorboards, furniture, benchtops, tissues and paper products. Even the cardboard box or wood-fibre packaging your latest delivery came in. It's all around us - and it's critical that we keep growing and manufacturing in Australia!
"Unlike many other everyday products, those made from timber and wood-fibre are environmentally friendly and fight climate change by locking up carbon. Think recyclable paper and packaging over single-use plastics or structural timber over steel and concrete."
Australia's Former Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb on the release on the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) review stated that, 'the only pathway known to science that has immediate capacity - to remove greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, from the atmosphere is photosynthesis.' So growing trees removes CO2 from the atmosphere and then using timber in houses instead of other materials that emit CO2 in their production means timber provides a double benefit for the environment.
Some quick benefits to keep in mind:
- Our full supply chain, from tree growing and forest management, through to harvest, haulage and transport and the manufacture of different sustainable products is responsible for 80,000 direct and 100,000 indirect jobs
- The total economic output from across the sector totals around $24 billion annually
- Carbon storage measurements vary, but to give an idea, your typical timber house frame absorbs 9.5 tonnes of CO2-e from the atmosphere. When you include other timber and wood furnishings like floors, decks and furniture items, the figure can grow to 25 tonnes of CO2-e
- Our national plantation estate stores 258 million tonnes of CO2-e - equivalent to the emissions avoided by 56 million cars driven for one year
- United Nations science recognises that native forests managed for sustainable timber production generate the largest carbon mitigation benefit
"Today, Tuesday the 19th
