New Zealand Coroner Wallace Bain released findings earlier this month from an inquest into the death of 23-year-old Robert Epapara, one of 10 forestry workers killed on the job in 2013. Source: World Socialist Website The inquest was one of eight carried out into recent deaths in fore

Australia’s forestry and wood products sector requires more investment and planning if it is to take advantage of growing global demand for fibre, paper and packaging, construction materials and bio-fuels. Source: SBS A report prepared for Forest and Wood Products Australia said

Timber industry representatives say a new plan for research into agroforestry will not be a repeat of failed managed investment schemes. Source: ABC Rural Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce announced $520,000 in funding for a research and development project to look into growing tree

Albury-Wodonga, on the Victorian/New South Wales border, is set to be home to Australia’s first cross laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing plant. Source: ABC News The $25 million XLam operation is expected to create up to 54 jobs when it begins operations, scheduled for 2017. Wh

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has released the Australian forest and wood products statistics: September and December quarters 2015 report. Source: Timberbiz ABARES Executive Director, Karen Schneider, said that the Australian fores

They don’t snore, but might creak during their slumbers. For the first time, trees have been shown to undergo physical changes at night that can be likened to sleep, or at least to day-night cycles that have been observed experimentally in smaller plants. Source: New Scientist Branche

The new Lao government has issued a moratorium on the export of logs and timber in a bid to reduce rampant and widespread illegal wood shipments outside the small Southeast Asian nation’s borders, according to a copy of the document obtained by RFA’s Lao Service. Source: Radio Free As

A skilled CEO is sought to establish Forest Research Australia (FRA). Source: Timberbiz FRA is a new research centre of excellence, which is being established with the assistance of the industry-owned research and development corporation (RDC) Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA)

Defections from the Mitre 10 and Home Timber & Hardware networks are shaping up as a bigger risk to Metcash’s bid to create a serious number two player in hardware than the competition watchdog investigation. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Rival buying group Hardware &