Major priorities for the forest products industry, which were identified in AFPA’s industry wide submission to the Forest Industry Advisory Council (FIAC) Strategic Directions Issues Paper, include:
- Plantation expansion — providing new drivers for commercial plantation expansion to deliver the resource needed to secure the future of existing and new wood processing facilities;
- Regional approaches– greater emphasis on building upon the strengths of key industry regions through long-term infrastructure and investment incentives for plantation and wood processing expansion
- New forest, wood and paper products– positioning the industry to take advantage of opportunities to diversify production and increase value adding in new products such as in engineered wood products, biomaterials, biochemicals and bioenergy
- Research and Development initiatives– addressing the dramatic decline in forest industry R&D through greater incentives to build a critical mass of researchers and co-fund priority R&D activities.