Abstract:
Official guidelines have been laid down for the expansion of the acreage devoted to exotic forestry from the present one million to two million by the year 2000 and to 3 million by the year 2050. It is hoped that exports of forest products will rise to the equivalent of 150 million cubic feet by the year 2000, and possibly to 250 million by 2050. The Forest Service has established 25-30,000 acres as a tentative target figure for annual new planting, and may increase this figure. In an effort to encourage further small plantations The Farm Forestry Scheme was liberalized in 1964; The Farm Forestry Encouragement Amendment Act (1965) included private companies and Local Bodies on similar terms.
With so ambitious a programme, the regional and sub-regional distribution of the exotic timber industry is a matter of some moment, in view of the nature of the product to be transported. Transport costs are said to constitute a major cost in forestry, Quantitative estimates of its importance, however, have varied considerably in the absence of documentation. As forestry products rank as the fourth major export, and as the transport industry as a whole claims the equivalent of 35 per cent of our national income, the role of the transport ingredient in forest location and exotic timber production is of considerable concern, illuminating at the same time the relative roles of road and rail transport in a major industry.
