KEY ISSUES: SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT
Chemical use in plantations
Pesticides are defined as any chemical or chemical mixture used for controlling weeds, insects, fungi, nematodes and animals, which adversely affect growth (quantity and quality) and the health of plantations.
Chemicals are used in plantation growing to control competitive growth of other plants and reduce the impact of pest and disease attack. Failure to control the growth of competing plants will significantly reduce early growth and survival rates — and either reduce the overall production from the plantation or increase the time taken to reach plantation maturity.
Plantation growing would not be economically viable using current techniques without the use of some chemical weed control at the time of establishment.
Statistics on plantations and chemical pesticides*:
- Plantation forestry accounts for 0.7 per cent of Australia’s total spending on chemical pesticides. This plantation forestry spending is estimated to be 99 per cent on herbicides and 1 per cent on insecticides.
- Chemical pesticides use in plantation forestry is usually confined to the first two years of a plantation crop cycle; for the rest of the life of the plantation, application is very limited and generally only occurs in response to pest or disease outbreak. Agricultural crops tend to have a higher frequency of chemical pesticide use and in some cases have multiple applications in each year or for each crop;
- Aerial application of chemical pesticides by the plantation forest industry accounts for a maximum of 0.5 per cent of the total 10 million hectares of land aerially treated in Australia with a range of chemical products
*Source: Pesticides and Plantations, FWPRDC, October 2006
A3P's sustainability targets
A3P's Sustainability Action Plan, performance, people and prosperity, includes strategies and targets aimed at balancing the desire for less chemical use with the benefits of improved growth by: using the lowest toxicity and quantity consistent with effectiveness; and continually seeking and reviewing alternatives.
The Plan commits members to:
- a reduction in quantity of identified chemicals used (active ingredient) per area of plantation established. Specific targets to be set after priority chemicals identified; and
- zero breaches of codes, regulations and legislation (number and severity of breaches).
Timber Information
Free technical information on the source, selection, properties and other atributes of plantation timber based products available for use in building and construction applications.