Guy Barnett, Tasmanian Minister for Primary Industries and Water, Media Release, 26 October 2021
The Tasmanian Government welcomes the announcement today by the Federal Government to help grow and incentivise the plantation estate and support jobs in Tasmania.
Today’s announcement by the Australian Government of unlocking the carbon farming market ‘water rule’ in the South of the State will help encourage private forester participants to fully participate in the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) across the State, including making the market more accessible to small scale landholders.
This decision will make accessing carbon credits for Southern Tasmania the same as the North/West, to make the ERF more accessible across the Tasmanian Forestry Hub region.
Actively facilitating the expansion of our private forest resource and supporting jobs remains one of the key policy commitments of our Government, with most of the opportunities in Tasmania being in the private forestry sector.
Opening up the South of the State will give private foresters an additional possible revenue and incentivises investment in new plantation development.
Industry has called for these changes for a long time and now we want the private foresters to plant more trees to help grow our estate into the future, as well as assist with carbon outcomes.
I have been a strong advocate for this change over a number of years and I congratulate the Australian Government and industry for driving this key part of the National Forest Industries Plan.
The Tasmanian timber industry continues to be a critical supplier of timber products into the Australian housing and construction sector, at a time of strong demand.
