How much of clearfelled forest becomes woodchips?
92% of wood extracted from State forest becomes woodchips, while 3.5% becomes sawn timber. Tasmania is producing record amounts of export woodchip. Rather than control this low-value use of forests, the Regional Forest Agreement (an agreement between the state and national government) has entrenched and accelerated it. The total amount of wood chipped in 2000 reached 5.3 million tonnes. From 2001 the future release of these figures became prohibited. Although the government and industry argue that woodchips are a waste product of logging for building timber, 84% of all logs extracted from State forest goes directly to the woodchipper. Only 16% goes to sawmills. A large proportion (about two thirds) of this 16% ends up as waste and is also sent to the woodchipper.
