You, as a consumer, can help save our native forests and help to ensure that the industry moves into the already-existing plantations. Only use timber that is plantation-grown or recycled. The future for the Australian timber industry is in plantations. This is not wishful thinking, but hard commercial fact. Plantation timber has many advantages over native forest timber.
Plantations already supply the majority of our domestic timber needs.
A recent study of the wood products industry in Victoria predicts that the amount of sawlogs will double over the 1990's, with a further doubling possible in the following decade. This situation is similar throughout Australia. Multinational woodchipping companies are keeping the native forest timber industry in business. While the timber industry continues to stubbornly persist in logging native forests, it is consequently destroying our priceless natural heritage and actually reducing employment. Tourism based on our spectacular native forests has enormous potential.