Financial results

Forestry Corporation has been appointed to manage more than two million hectares of native forests for a range of public purposes including recreation, tourism, biodiversity, pests, weeds, fire, conservation, apiary, grazing and renewable timber production.

Timber harvesting operations are the primary source of revenue and these operations remain profitable. However, the main expense is land management, the cost of which is traditionally subsidised by income from timber harvesting operations

The Hardwood Forests Division, which manages native forests and hardwood plantations, maintains around ten times more land than the Softwood Plantations Division, which manages softwood timber plantations. Around one per cent of the 1.8 million hectares of native forests the Hardwood Forests Division manages are harvested each year but every year the division invests in ongoing land management activities in the 99 per cent of forest that is not harvested.

The Hardwood Forests Division did report a loss in the 2020-21 financial year, which resulted from significantly reduced timber production due to additional precautions in response to fires and extreme wet weather as well as the additional cost of repairing roads and other infrastructure damaged in the 2019-20 bushfires. Forestry Corporation sustained damage to approximately 20,000 kilometres of its road network during the 2019-20 fires, and roads were further damaged in the floods over the last two years.

Since the 2019-20 bushfires Forestry Corporation has adopted additional environmental safeguards above the requirements of the strict ruleset in place in NSW, the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval, to balance providing timber to local industry employing local people to produce important timber products and ensuring the forests can regenerate after the bushfires. These measures reduced the scale, number and intensity of operations in coastal forests, while severe wet weather also reduced operations.

In managing two million hectares of publicly-owned state forests for multiple-uses, Forestry Corporation makes significant investments in maintaining award winning tourism destinations, a network of 60,000 kilometres of public roads, pest and weed management, firefighting, research and conservation.

Forestry Corporation is open and transparent about its financial results. These are reported in detail in the Annual Report each year and our Sustainability Report also includes detailed information about our investment in forest management. CEO Anshul Chaudhary discussed the impact of fires and floods on the media release issued with the Annual Report.

Wood Supply Agreements

Forestry Corporation of NSW holds long-term agreements with a range of businesses throughout NSW for the supply of sustainable timber from State forests.

On the north coast, the term of many agreements for high quality sawlogs ends in 2023, although some end in 2028. Local industry has been seeking a five-year extension of these contracts, to bring the expiry date of all high quality timber supply contracts on the north coast into alignment and provide the short-term certainty they need to continue investing in their businesses and creating jobs for local people.

In 2021, Forestry Corporation carried out a sustainable yield review of the long-term timber supply, which is modelled 100 years into the future to ensure the same forests produce the same amount of timber for the next generation as they do today.

The sustainable yield review is not an environmental assessment, it is a calculation of how much commercial timber can sustainably be supplied each year based on the strict environmental rules already in place for all native forest operations.

The sustainable yield impact is varied across the state. Depending on the species, the quality of timber may not be affected at all and where it does degrade, it may not degrade immediately, it degrades over time as fire affected trees die or as the epicormic growth following fires creates defects in the timber.

On the north coast, models show we will be able to continue to supply timber at existing levels over the long-term as forests are harvested and regrown time and again.

Find out more about sustainable yield.

Environmental penalties

There are strict environmental rules in place for all forestry operations and Forestry Corporation is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations. Forestry Corporation takes any non-compliances very seriously

Penalties received in December 2021 relate to an operation which took place in 2020 in Mogo State Forest under site-specific operating conditions where all hollow bearing trees were required to be protected.  Forestry Corporation undertook ground assessments with trained staff walking through the forest to identify trees with visible hollows and identified and protected hundreds of such trees during the harvesting operations. A small number of trees were determined by the EPA to have been hollow bearing trees after they were felled. Often hollows of small sizes are difficult to identify from the ground and Forestry Corporation is working with the EPA the definition and visibility of hollow bearing trees before and after harvesting.

Operations only take place in regrowth forests which have been harvested for timber and regrown many times before. Native forest provide important timber resources not available from the relatively small holdings of hardwood plantations planted in NSW over the last 50 years and the demand for these timber products is strong for housing, furniture and infrastructure like power poles and wharf timbers.

Since the 2019-20 bushfires Forestry Corporation has adopted additional environmental safeguards above the requirements of the strict ruleset in place in NSW, the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval, to balance providing timber to local industry employing local people to produce important timber products and ensuring the forests can regenerate after the bushfires.

These safeguards include things like, setting aside additional areas from harvesting in feed tree clumps and landscape exclusions and undertaking additional landscape surveys. These measures remain in place today. We have also bolstered compliance with additional resources on the ground for planning and monitoring and are committed to complying with the laws and regulations and minimising any environmental impact from operations so that the forests regenerate and provide both wildlife habitat and timber supply for future generations.

Media contact: 0408779903