Tasmania’s hardwood plantation resource is of vital importance to future economic growth.

However, the currently favoured option of converting plantations to wood chips and pulp offers Tasmania:

• declining returns;
• processes with high environmental impact;
• commercial disadvantages for businesses involved in the forest products supply chain;
• inflexibility in developing high value alternative products.

There are real OPTIONS that offer:

• environmentally benign processes;
• multiple high value products that provide competition in the market place for the forest resource;
• compatibility with other growth areas of the local economy that depend on Tasmania’s clean image;
• effective linking to the existing high tech skills base in Tasmania.

Other options for using plantation wood include:

• replacing products hitherto manufactured from crude oil such as plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals and adhesives;
• producing transport fuels;
• using biomass as a fuel source for power, etc.

Download a report by engineer Michael Scott on Tasmania’s options for best use of hardwood plantations ‘Prospects for downstream processing of plantation hardwood.pdf’

The business of investing in a pulp mill that is manufactured in Finland and assembled in Tasmania works this way.

Are MIS plantation operators and finance industry donations to major political parties driving the conversion of farmland to trees at taxpayers expense? Here is how it works.

The benefits of the pulp mill are spruiked by the Government but:

Is there enough for a pulp mill?

A water audit of inputs and outputs from the South Esk basin over the summer period of 2006-07 unveils a story of declining supplies and increasing demands.

The audit highlights a covert competition for water security involving Meander valley irrigators; Midlands farmers; domestic consumers in Campbell Town, Ross and Tunbridge; domestic consumers supplied by Esk Water; environmental flows to sustain river health; consumption by expanding plantations in the headwaters; and direct use by the proposed pulp mill.

TAP is a non-party political movement. Voters who have added their names to the Voters Block have pledged not to vote for a local, state or federal candidates who support Gunns proposed pulp mill in the Tamar valley. The Voters Block has over 23 700 names and has surpassed the original target of 22 000. The number is growing daily and the new target is 28 000. Send an email to tapcontact@gmail.com for further information about the Voters Block.