1 Mar 2023
TRANSITION SUPPORT FOR THE NSW NATIVE FOREST SECTOR
Calling for a just transition from forestry-to-plantations that benefits both people and nature.
Forests provide homes for wildlife, store carbon, make rain, purify water, provide multiple benefits for Indigenous communities, support nature-based businesses, attract tourists, and benefit people’s physical and mental health. They provide solutions to the nature and climate crises. However, forests face tipping points due to deforestation and forest degradation, global heating and invasive species. NSW is the second largest producer of logs harvested from native forests in Australia. The forestry-to-plantations transition in NSW is inevitable, necessary, and overdue. Such a transition would support various NSW government initiatives, including cutting emissions by 50% by 2030 and doubling koala numbers by 2050. Therefore, this report entitled Transition Support for the NSW Native Forest Sector by Frontier Economics and commissioned by WWF-Australia, analyses the likely impacts and benefits of completing the transition from native forest logging to plantations in NSW, and the structural adjustment design principles which could support a transition for the sector. This report was not commissioned to ignite or exacerbate ‘forestry wars’. Instead, it is designed to inform and motivate critical solution focussed discussions, ideally led by the NSW Government.