Tasmania’s timber industry could be threatened if international companies follow a Japanese paper mill’s decision to ban the purchase of woodchips from the state’s old-growth forests.
The Forest Industries Association (FIA) says thousands of industry jobs could be lost if conservationists increase their pressure on companies after Mitsubishi’s decision to source woodchips from plantation forests.
The environmental group Wilderness Society now intends to target two other Japanese paper manufacturers, Oji and Nippon.
FIA believes the value-added sawmill and veneer industries would be worst hit by a reduction in old-growth logging.
