Provisos on the new owner of forest rotations in the Green Triangle designed to sustain the timber industry are encouraging but councillors and politicians in South Australia’s southeast remain against the State Government’s sale of the region’s future timber harvests. Source: Weekly Times Now
The consortium headed by US timberland investor The Campbell Group purchased the forestry assets last week. The Group, which manages 1.2 million hectares of fine in America, will oversee the next three forward rotations in the Triangle, with the deal lasting around 105 years.
The deal came with a number of conditions.
The Campbell Group will be required to use local sawmills for processing, rotate the forest every three decades, replant areas of the estate when felled or fire-damaged and report to Government each year.
The South Australian Government will also retain ownership of the Green Triangle forest land.
Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi remained opposed to the sale, but was pleased such conditions had been accepted by the buyer.
Cr Gandolfi said his community had rallied against the sale on three occasions with fellow Green Triangle communities to achieve such provisions.
“My concern was that the new owner would directly export logs and bypass our timber mills, which would threaten thousands of jobs, directly and indirectly in south east,” he said.
“What our community has achieved is conditions put in contract as part of the sale to ensure our local timber mills will be supplied with ongoing supply of logs.”
Mount Gambier MP Don Pegler also lobbied against the deal. He thought the rotations should never have been sold, but was pleased a “reputable” company had bought them.
“I was completely against sale. We will rue the day we sold off these assets in years to come,” he said. “But I’m pleased Campbell purchased it. They have a very good record in managing forest, and have agreed to all controls, which gives some surety to employment in our mills.
“They can’t just go and fell and export logs. They will be processed locally.”
Mount Gambier mayor Steve Perryman praised the conditions imposed on Campbell Group, but said the $670 million price tag on the rotations was far too low when the assets were worth well above $1 billion.
Cr Perryman also queried how long the contract provisos would remain in effect.
“The Government has tried to spin the conditions as long term, but we’re talking about crop that takes somewhere between 28 to 45 years to harvest,” he said.
“Talking a term any less than that is not talking long term.”
The mayor did praise Campbell Group as a company with solid foundations in the timber industry.
“Early indications suggest they will be a good corporate citizen,” he said. South Australian Treasurer Jack Snelling said those in the state’s south-east could be assured their jobs were secure and their forest industry would “continue to thrive”.
