KEY ISSUES: SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT
> See also water use in processing.
Water and Plantations
The Australian community is becoming increasingly aware of the need to use our water resources more efficiently. As a responsible land user, the plantation industry has a role in the water debate alongside agriculture and other water users. However any water use policy decisions must be underpinned by sound science, take a whole-of-landscape perspective and take an adequate account of the many economic and environmental benefits are delivered by plantations.
When properly planned and managed, plantations can contribute to more sustainable land use in rural areas by providing many environmental, social and economic benefits with little impact on water availability. The challenge is to encourage a national water policy which supports plantation development in catchments where they have the most commercial and environmental benefits with little impact on water flow.
Australian plantation industry national water policy
In July 2007, the Australian plantation industry, represented by A3P, Australian Forest Growers (AFG), the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) and Timber Communities Australia (TCA) released a national water policy. The policy details the industry's views on the National Water Initiative (NWI) and how the NWI clauses dealing with water interception should be dealt with in the development of regional water plans.
The policy advocates that:
1. Plantation forestry is a dryland (non-irrigated) agricultural land use and any policy contemplated in relation to interception of water by plantations should be considered only as part of a full debate on water interception by all dryland agricultural land uses
2. All policy on water interception must be underpinned by sound, repeatable and reliable science
3. All policy on water interception should take into account issues of water quality as well as water quantity
4. Clauses 55-57 of the National Water Initiative should only be implemented as written, that is, constrained to consideration of land use change (for example new plantations) not existing land uses
5. Any inclusion of land use change to plantation forestry in a water entitlement system must take into account the differences between the physical extraction of water from the water supply system by humans and the natural interception of water by plants
Download the Australian plantation industry national water policy Adobe PDF | 0.2 Mb
Further information
- A3P report: Impact of Plantations on Murray Water Flows Grossly Exaggerated: A critique of “Risks to the Shared Water Resources of the Murray-Darling Basin”
- Bureau of Rural Sciences: Science for Decision Makers: Plantations and Water (August 2007)
- Presentation by Dr Ian Prosser, CSIRO Land and Water: Forest water interception and implications for water policy
- A3P’s Sustainability Action Plan performance, people and prosperity
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.