coolmelbourne.org

Australia's forest and wood products industries have an annual gross turnover of more than A$18 billion per year. That's rather a lot of money.

Most Australian exports are destined for nations in the Asia-Pacific region with the major markets being Japan (38 per cent by value), New Zealand (19 per cent by value) and China and Hong Kong (13 per cent by value). In 2004-2005, total exports of wood products totalled $2.1 billion.
 
On top of that, around 83 000 people are directly employed in Australia's forest industries. Over 80 per cent of these employees work in the wood and paper manufacturing industries, with the balance in the forest industry.

In Australia, we have around 1,140 mills, with 75% producing high-value, small volume hardwood products. The remaining 25% are softwood mills, producing timber mainly for structural manufacturing.

According to the federal government, plantations supply over 70% of Australia's sawnwood produced in Australia, yet comprise less than 1% of the total forest area. So that must mean that at least 30% of sawnwood comes from native forests.

These are forests that hold some of the most amazing species and habitats on earth, with plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth.

Yet we still log them. And what do we turn these remarkable forests into?

Woodchips. That's right, crummy old woodchips. What an inglorious end to our precious forests.