Tasmania is about 155 miles off the south coast of mainland Australia. It is about the same size as Ireland, and its population (450,000 plus) is around the same as that of Liverpool in the UK.
Only five per cent of Australia is forested as it is the driest continent on Earth. A High proportion of Australia's forests are in Tasmania, Australia's southernmost state. Native forest covers about 50% of the island.
Tasmania's endemic wildlife includes the Tasmanian devil, Forester Kangaroo, Fairy Penguin, Quoll and eleven bird species.
Tourism in Tasmania provided just 22,000 jobs in 2004.
TASMANIAN FORESTRY FACTS
• Only 20,000 hectares of native forest are harvested in Tasmania every year.
• Only 80,000 hectares of native forest have been converted to non-native plantations in the last few years.
• Tasmania exports more woodchips than every other state in Australia combined.
• A large proportion of wood taken from native forests become woodchips, for export and about 4% is fit for sawn timber.
• Just 14,600 hectares of native forest were harvested In 2003. 6180 hectares were replanted with native trees and much of the rest was replaced by fast-growing plantations.
• The rate of logging in Tasmania has risen in the last 10 years. Logging companies' are increasing. Nonetheless, thousand of jobs have been lost as the industry has been mechanised.
1 comment:
Lookit!
That map really shows the true situation, if it's not locked up by Greenies and such, it's bloody well farmland. Who needs all this farmland? That that's not roads and such anyway.
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