1 August 2007
The National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) says the New South Wales Government has again let down the state’s timber industry and its timber communities by announcing a code of practice that will see the industry’s access to private native forest resources shrink even further.
NAFI nationally represents companies that process more than 70% of the state’s hardwood timber and has only recently entered into the private native forest debate in New South Wales at the request of its members.
CEO Catherine Murphy said NAFI was not consulted by Minister (Primary Industries) Ian McDonald in the development of the interim codes of practice that will dictate forest operations until a new Act for the management of private native forests is developed in two years’ time.
“These codes will hurt the industry with an impact of at least a 15% reduction in log availability from private native forests,” Murphy said.
Though disappointed with the consultation process leading to the 30 July announcement, NAFI is looking forward to working with the Government to get a more suitable outcome for the forest industry and the environment.
“For too long we have seen policies developed that focus on shrinking the resource to the forest industry for short term political gain,” Murphy said. “The losers out of these policies are not only the industry and local timber communities but the economy at large. With shrinking access to native forest resources and one of the poorest records for developing plantations in Australia in recent times, New South Wales will become increasingly reliant on imported timbers.
“A recent report found that around 10 percent of wood products imported to Australia come from suspect or illegally logged sources. The state will also become more reliant on more energy intensive building materials as alternatives to timber, which are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.”
Glen Kile Awarded For Jolly Medal
The Institute of Foresters of Australia’s (IFA) highest award, the N.W. Jolly Medal, has this year been awarded to forest scientist Dr Glen Kile.
Announcing the award, IFA president Dr Peter Volker said Kile was an outstanding Australian forest scientist with a professional career of more than 35 years. “For the past 15 years Dr Kile has provided visionary leadership for forest and wood products research and development in Australia,” Volker said. “He displays extraordinary personal qualities of strong integrity and respect for others and a capacity to nurture the skills of people with whom he associates.”
Kile will be presented with the award at the IFA’s annual general meeting on 19 September.
Volker said Dr Kile had been particularly influential and successful in ensuring that Australian forest policy was based on sound science and that high quality forestry research enabled the Australian forest industries to be both internationally competitive and environmentally sustainable. Through his involvement on the Standing Committee of Forestry during the 1990s, he was involved in many important forest policy developments, including the National Plantations Advisory Committee and the development of the National Forest Policy Statement and Regional Forest Agreements.
Kile began his career in forest research as a forest pathologist, but has also conducted and led research programs on hardwood plantations before moving into major leadership roles in two Australian forest research organisations, CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products Division and the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation (FWPRDC). He has played important roles in the governance of five cooperative research centres that focus on forestry and the forest products industry.
Kile graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1968 and gained his PhD in 1972. He joined the Government’s Forest Research Institute and in 1975 became a senior principal research scientist when the Forest Research Institute became the CSIRO Division of Forest Research.
He has been executive director of FWPRDC since 2002 and has contributed enormously to the documentation of Australian forest research and forestry generally. He is the author or co-author of more than100 publications.
Kile received a Centenary Medal and in 2005 and was awarded the South East Asia and Pacific Region Medal for Excellence by the Commonwealth Forestry Association (CFA).
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