TASMANIA'S private plantation resource was the key to Tasmania's future Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, chief executive officer Jan Davis said.
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Ms Davis earlier this month said that the TFGA welcomed a state government report that had assessed the scale of Tasmania's privately-owned hardwood plantations.
"The report confirms private forestry is a major contributor to the long term development of regional Tasmania, and provides vital jobs and income in most rural communities," Ms Davis said.
"Private forest owners, who are mostly farmers, manage around 885,000 hectares of forest resource that includes about 177,000 hectares of hardwood plantations.
"This represents 75 per cent of the plantation resource in Tasmania and a quarter of all hardwood plantations in Australia.
"The report has also found the industry could underpin a range of value-adding opportunities for Tasmania - potentially, these private plantations could sustainably produce up to 3million tonnes of wood each year."
Ms Davis said that Tasmanian farmers had been sustainably managing native forests, plantations and woodlots for many generations.
"We believe that continuing management of all these forests will be vital to the future of wood processing in Tasmania," she said.
"It is time the role of private forests was given more than lip service and that the state government moved to address some of the major impediments to this industry's future.
"The report makes a number of recommendations as to actions that government can take in order to assist in securing the future of the privately owned hardwood plantation estate such that it continues to benefit those specifically involved with it and Tasmania as a whole.
"We'll be holding the government to account in delivering the support private foresters need to fulfil the potential that has been clearly identified in this report.
It is time that the state government stopped pretending that there can be any conversation about the future of the forestry industry in Tasmania without the full engagement of the private forests sector."