NATIVE FOREST — LOGGING — CARBON SEQUESTRATION
848. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the
Minister for Forestry:
I refer to the government's
announcement of 8 September 2021 about the ending of most native timber
harvesting in Western Australia and the budgeting of $350 million to plant 33 000
hectares of softwood plantations, which will result in up to 50 million pine
trees being planted, ''sequestering between 7.9 and 9.5 million tonnes
of carbon dioxide equivalent''.
(1) Will the 50 million pine trees
be harvested in the future?
(2) If yes to (1), will any of the carbon sequestered
in the harvested pine trees still be sequestered after harvest?
(3) If yes to (2), how much of the 7.9 to 9.5 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent will remain sequestered after
harvest?
(4) If pine trees
can be grown and harvested for carbon sequestration, why can native hardwood
not also be harvested for carbon sequestration?
(5) Why does the government have
different rules for different tree species?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I
will give the member a lesson in carbon sequestration! I thank the member for
the question. The following information has been provided by the
Minister for Forestry.
(1)–(2) Yes.
(3) The exact
amount of carbon that will remain in harvested wood products and also how long
it will remain sequestered depends on the product produced and the end use of
the timber. I note that this is basically for construction.
(4) Existing
trees in a landscape do not meet the ''additionality'' criteria
under the commonwealth harvest methodologies to generate Australian carbon
credit units.
(5) The same
additionality rules apply for all species under the commonwealth's
harvest methodologies.