Forestry

Forestry measures

The Australian Government’s A Better Future for our Regions and A Future Grown in Australia policies, establish the government’s commitment to Australia’s forest industries. They aim to strengthen, support and continue a sustainable forestry sector now and into the future.

The government is delivering a suite of initiatives totalling over $300 million to support Australia’s forest industries to innovate and improve the capacity and capability of the sector. This includes in the 2024-25 Budget directing $3.4 million to initiatives that will help Australia’s forestry industry to plan for the long term, which includes commitments to:

  • Work with stakeholders to review the 1992 National Forest Policy Statement to ensure it meets contemporary objectives for our future wood and fibre needs.
  • Support the Strategic Forest and Renewables Material Partnership and develop a Timber Fibre Strategy, including conducting a roundtable with the forestry sector, industry bodies, states and territories.

The government has also reserved $500 million of its $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund specifically for agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food and fibre.

Support Plantation Establishment program

The Australian Government's Support Plantation Establishment program commits $73.76 million in grant funding over four years from 2023–24. The funding supports the establishment of new long-rotation softwood and hardwood plantation forests in Australia.

The program aims to expand our domestic timber supply, particularly construction and manufacturing timber resources, contribute to Australia’s carbon emission reduction targets, and support regional communities through the retention and creation of regional jobs.

Grants are available to private industry, First Nations businesses, farm foresters and state and territory government forestry bodies. The grants require applicants to provide a co-contribution equal to the grant amount.

Further information is available on the Support Plantation Establishment.

Forestry Workforce Training Program

The Australian Government is investing $10 million over four years in the Forestry Workforce Training Program. The Program will support the delivery of skills and training to meet the requirements of Australia’s forest and wood products sectors.

Australia’s forest and wood products industries supply the nation with products for building and construction, packaging and many essential household products and require a specialised workforce to produce these products. An issue faced by these industries is accessing the specific training and credentials required for the workforce.

The forestry industry is a significant employer in rural and regional Australia, directly employing 52,000 people. Due to the remote location and ageing workforce, increased participation in the workforce by First Nations Australians and women will be increasingly important.

To ensure that the Program addresses the issues faced by the forest and wood products industries and the education and training sector, the Australian Government contracted ForestWorks Ltd to undertake a Scoping Study which sets out 19 recommendations for piloting action and implementation of the Program.

A crucial part of the Scoping Study was engaging with the different industries, government agencies and industry bodies to understand the needs and issues impacting them. ForestWorks Ltd conducted stakeholder consultation with a wide range of stakeholder groups in June 2023 and provided the final report to the Australian Government in November 2023. The Scoping Study sets out 19 recommendations for piloting action and implementation of the Program.

The department undertook an approach to market to identify a service provider to deliver the Program in line with the recommendations of the Scoping Study. Following this approach to market ForestWorks Ltd was engaged to deliver the Program.

Further information about the program is available on ForestWork’s webpage.

Download

Forestry Workforce Training Program Scoping Study - 10 November 2023 (PDF 3.7 MB)

If you have difficulty accessing this file, visit web accessibility for assistance.

Australian Forest and Wood Innovations

The Australian Government in partnership with the University of Tasmania (UTAS) has established Australian Forest and Wood Innovations (AFWI).

AFWI is supporting transformative research, development and innovation for Australia’s timber industry, while also supporting the training and development of forest industries researchers.

AFWI has 3 research centres at the University of Melbourne, the University of the Sunshine Coast and UTAS. The centres undertake research and development on behalf of AFWI. AFWI also undertakes an annual National Open Call for research that is open to all Australian-based researchers supporting the forest and wood products industries.

Further information about AFWI is available on the department's AFWI page.

Extending the Regional Forestry Hubs

The 11 Regional Forestry Hubs have been extended to June 2027 which includes an additional $8.6 million over 3 years from 2024-25 through to 2026-27.

This additional funding allows the Hubs to continue to provide strategic planning, technical assessments and analyses to support growth in their regions. The role of the Hubs has been expanded to include extension services, enabling the Hubs to inform local industries and landholders of the outcomes of the research and innovation work, in particular from the Australia-wide NIFPI. The Hubs do not provide individual business advice.

Further information is available on the department’s Regional Forestry Hubs page.

Accelerate Adoption of Wood Processing Innovation Program

The Australian Government has awarded $100.72 million in grant funding to 33 grantees across Australia.

The program supports the medium to long-term sustainability of wood processers by stimulating investment in upgrades to existing manufacturing lines, as well as supporting innovation to diversify domestic products.

By supporting wood processing facilities to use innovative technologies in their production, the Australian forestry industry will be able to supply more of Australia’s wood demands into the future.

Grant applications for the Accelerate Adoption of Wood Processing Innovation Program have closed.

More information is available on the Accelerate Adoption of Wood Processing Innovation Program page.

Protecting Australia from illegally logged timber products

This Australian Government invested $4.4 million between 2022-2024 to combat illegally logged products from entering the Australian market. This was in parallel with our recent illegal logging legislative reforms that came into effect on 3 March 2025.

Under this measure, we undertook a trial to better understand the range of timber testing technologies available to verify claims of species and origin of timber products entering the Australian market.

We also explored IT solutions for streamlining data collection and management of declarations, as well as supporting the expansion of a global timber testing reference database under a grant awarded to World Forest ID.

The investment positions the department to take forward timber testing under the new arrangements from the reformed laws.

Australia’s forestry case studies

The stories of the grantees and their projects that are delivering Australia’s future forest products.

Explore our case studies.

Watch

See how the program is supporting grantees to establish new plantations across Australia.

Plantation Pine Products Support Plantation Establishment Program case study

(Duration 1 mins 46 secs)

Introduction

This is the transcript of a video case study produced by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry as part of the Support Plantation Establishment Program. It was filmed with Plantation Pine Products on-site in Oberon, NSW in 2024.

Transcript

Video begins [0:00]

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The Support Plantation Establishment Program is a $73.76 million Australian Government Grant Program

The funding supports the establishment of new long-rotation softwood and hardwood plantation forests across Australia

[0:11]

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Plantation Pine Products were awarded $7.04 million in funding to support the establishment of 3,520 hectares of new plantation forests

Angus Spreckley: This plantation was planted in August this year with Pinus Radiata at 1,600 stems a hectare.

It will be 30 meter tall trees, probably about 600 stems a hectare. This will be thinned twice, down to about 600 stems a hectare during the rotation.

Areas around Oberon have 800mm of rainfall, so the cooler temperatures in summer, plenty of rainfall in winter, so it’s good growing conditions for pine trees.

The high up-front costs of forestry plantations is a challenge. Reducing that up-front cost which is what the grant does makes it significantly more palatable to plant trees.

If you own the land and your only cost is establishment and you can get that just for minor costs, it reduces all of the hurdles for a farmer to plant a bad paddock into pines.

So you’ll have structural grade lumber for your framing of your house, you’ll have MDF, or medium density fibreboard and particleboard used for kitchen cupboards, kitchen benches.

Here with the sawmills only taking Radiata, we’re pretty keen to enter partnerships with farmers. We’ll establish the trees with you, we’ll manage and harvest on your behalf and take the wood to market. We need lots of logs.

[1:35]

Music plays

Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry logo appears on screen

Text appears on screen:

Applications are open for grant round three of the Support Plantation Establishment program. Find out more and apply at GrantConnect.

[1:46]

Video ends

Australia’s forests

The Australia's State of the Forests Report states Australia has 134 million hectares of forest, covering 17% of Australia's land area. This is comprised of 132 million hectares of native forest and 0.47 million hectares of other forest.

ABARES' forest and wood products statistics, report Australia has 1.74 million hectares of commercial plantations.

Australia has around 3% of the world's forests and globally has the seventh largest forest area. Australia's native forests are dominated by eucalypts (77%), acacias (8%) and melaleucas (5%). About half of Australia's plantations are exotic softwood (predominantly Pinus radiata), while the other half are hardwood (predominantly eucalypt species such as Eucalyptus globulus).

Australia’s forests are diverse, extensive, and highly regarded for their ecological, economic and social values. They provide a range of benefits including wood and non-wood forest products and ecosystem services including:

  • water protection and supply
  • soil protection
  • carbon storage and sequestration
  • habitat for flora and fauna species
  • tourism and recreation
  • cultural values for both non-Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Australia has a well-established institutional framework to support the conservation and sustainable management of forests.

The Australian Government aims to foster and enable productive, profitable, internationally competitive and sustainable Australian forest and forest products industries.

Detailed information on Australia's forests is available from the Australia’s State of the Forests Report series that are published every 5 years. Preparation of the reports is a commitment made by governments in the National Forest Policy Statement. Reports have been published in 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018 and a synthesis in 2023.

ABARES also publishes comprehensive datasets relating to Australia's forestry sector in its biannual Australian Forest and Wood Products Statistics report, including time series of data on:

  • forest and wood products resources
  • production
  • consumption
  • trade
  • employment.

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