New level of openness and improved transparency in Stewardship Report

 Dr Hans Drielsma
Executive General Manager
Acting Managing Director

Forestry Tasmania’s new Stewardship Report, which was released today, provides an unprecedented level of transparency to our operations.

For the first time, we have combined our traditional annual financial report with our sustainable forest management report.

The result is the most comprehensive insight into Forestry Tasmania’s environmental, social and economic sustainability we have yet produced.

It tracks our progress against the objectives of our Sustainability Charter, and as such, provides a ‘warts and all’ view of our business. It allows our stakeholders to immediately understand the areas in which we are doing well, and those in which there is room for improvement.

The Stewardship Report demonstrates that Forestry Tasmania delivered many beneficial social and environmental outcomes while recording a robust profit in the challenging trading conditions created by the global financial crisis.

As we reported when our financials were released in August this year, we delivered an operating profit of $9.3 million in 2008/09, up from $8.6 million the previous year.

However, the downturn in the international markets has been deeper and more prolonged than we had anticipated, and it will be difficult to achieve a similar result this year.

In terms of our environmental and social responsibilities, we achieved a number of significant milestones in 2008/09 that continued to improve our sustainability.

These include making good progress in implementing alternatives to clearfelling, investing $330,000 in searching for wedge-tailed eagle nests, and providing $100,000 in sponsorship to worthy individuals and organisations through the Community Assist Program.

Key highlights 2008/09

• FT launched the report A New Silviculture for Tasmania’s Forests: a Review of the Variable Retention Program, which confirmed that the business will meet the target to reduce clearfelling in old growth forests to 20 per cent of the annual old growth harvest.
• $4.2 million was invested in sustainable forest management research.
• A further 51 eagle nests were found, bringing the total number of eagle nests on state forest to 553.
• FT signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gumatj Corporation of east Arnhem Land to develop a sustainable timber industry on the Gumatj Clan estate. (The first project to be completed under the partnership, a five-bedroom bunkhouse at Garrathiya, near Nhulunbuy, was officially opened in August 2009).
• FT made payments to contractors and suppliers totalling $185 million.
• All 196 water samples collected and submitted for independent testing following the application of pesticides were free of chemicals.
• FT and Vos Constructions completed work on the Eagles’ Eyrie lookout at Abbotts Peak, part of the Maydena Adventure Hub.

To download your copy, click on links below:
Stewardship Report 2009 (5,644kb PDF)
Appendix 1 - 2009 Financial Statements (2,507kb PDF)
Appendix 2 - Sustainable Forest Management Data Tables (2,619kb PDF)