{"id":33007,"date":"2026-03-02T18:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=33007"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:03:32","slug":"australias-plantation-sector-is-trained-to-cut-costs-not-create-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/australias-plantation-sector-is-trained-to-cut-costs-not-create-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia&#8217;s Plantation Sector is Trained to Cut Costs, Not Create Value"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Australian forestry has been held back by decades of productivity stagnation and capital misallocation \u2014 and the industry&#8217;s own training is partly to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is according to Steve Walker, Principal of Terrafolia Advisory and lead author of the Rozetta Institute&#8217;s new white paper, <a href=\"https:\/\/rozetta.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/White_Paper_National_Pathway_for_High_Productivity_Forestry_-and_Renewable_Carbon-3.pdf\"><em>A National Pathway for High-Productivity Forestry and Renewable Carbon Supply<\/em>,<\/a> who told Wood Central that the value chain had built a culture of cost discipline that, whilst producing stable and resilient assets, had come at the expense of genuine value creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor most of the past century, foresters have been trained exceptionally well to manage cost,\u201d Walker said. \u201cWe are taught to protect the estate, control establishment and harvesting costs, deliver predictable yield, minimise risk, avoid catastrophic loss and maintain certification and compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst this discipline has produced stable and resilient assets, stability is not the same as optimisation: \u201cAnd in a capital-constrained world, that distinction matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s why Dr Paul Dalby, CEO of the Rozetta Institute, is backing the development of a new roadmap to address the barriers to productivity across the country&#8217;s forest-based value chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cTimber is increasingly a strategic resource for Australia that underpins housing, renewable fuels, green materials and regional employment,\u201d Dr Dalby said. \u201cRozetta Institute supports the recommendations of this report, which is to develop a national roadmap to address the systemic challenges that currently inhibit the productivity of the timber resources in Australia.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Where did 10 million cubic metres of annual harvest go? Australia&#39;s roundwood output has fallen steadily since 2017, and plantation eucalyptus is leading the decline. A new @RozettaInstitute paper explains why. (Chart: Rozetta Institute) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nkAHJlDSjZ\">pic.twitter.com\/nkAHJlDSjZ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WoodCentralAu (@WoodCentralAU1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WoodCentralAU1\/status\/2028366080901791965?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/australia-can-double-its-plantation-output-without-planting-a-single-tree\/\">On Friday<\/a>, Wood Central spoke to Walker and co-author Dr Lyndall Bull, who revealed that Australia could dramatically improve the productivity of its forest assets by using modern genetics, clonal propagation and precision silviculture, all without planting new estates. Today, Walker went further, arguing the productivity gap is a symptom of a deeper structural problem rooted in how the industry thinks about returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Managing cost vs creating value<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Walker said cost management focuses on reducing expenditure per hectare, improving harvesting efficiency, and avoiding volatility. Value optimisation asks different questions \u2014 how to lift yield per hectare, improve log mix and recovery, and monetise carbon and residue streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne mindset protects margin,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThe other expands it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walker said Australia&#8217;s plantation estate had shed more than 300,000 hectares over the past decade, whilst demand for structural timber, engineered wood, renewable carbon and industrial biomass continued to grow, a divergence he said was too often framed as a land-use or policy issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It is more accurately a portfolio performance issue,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If forestry consistently delivered compelling, risk-adjusted returns relative to other asset classes, capital would scale it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCapital flows toward productivity. It does not flow toward hectares alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Bull, Director and Principal Consultant at Lynea Advisory, who has worked on forest product market development across Asia-Pacific and global supply chain policy, agreed, telling Wood Central the investment case for productivity-led forestry was well understood internationally, but that Australia had lacked a clear framework for acting on it until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Look at where Australia&#39;s plantation estate sits. A number of regions anchor the country&#39;s timber processing, logistics and export capability \u2014 a new @RozettaInstitute paper says lifting productivity in these regions is the key to growing Australia&#39;s wood basket. (Map: DAFF) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gD3B5nnlU5\">pic.twitter.com\/gD3B5nnlU5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WoodCentralAu (@WoodCentralAU1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WoodCentralAU1\/status\/2028368219610955820?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where forestry fits right now<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Walker said the industry had evolved as a biological science, a land stewardship profession and a long-cycle asset management model \u2014 but not as a vertically integrated industrial platform, an energy transition asset or a capital markets optimisation product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe industry often debates expansion before optimisation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut expansion without productivity gains simply scales mediocre returns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCapital discipline requires a different sequence \u2014 optimise the existing estate, lift biological productivity materially, integrate downstream processing and carbon strategy, secure offtake, and only then expand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walker said forestry was increasingly part of energy transition portfolios, industrial decarbonisation strategies, and sovereign manufacturing, and that this demanded integrated thinking across biology, logistics, processing, and capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt requires foresters who understand finance and financiers who understand forestry,\u201d he said. \u201cThe next phase of the industry will be defined not by cost containment, but by value creation. And value creation begins with productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Please note<\/strong>: Wood Central will have further coverage of the Rozetta Institute white paper in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australian forestry has been held back by decades of productivity stagnation and capital misallocation \u2014 and the industry&#8217;s own training is partly to blame. That is according to Steve Walker, Principal of Terrafolia Advisory and lead author of the Rozetta Institute&#8217;s new white paper, A National Pathway for High-Productivity Forestry and Renewable Carbon Supply, who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"default","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[50,33,2,32,45,44,31],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":{"0":"post-33007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-editors-picks","9":"category-featured","10":"category-global-news","11":"category-sustainability","12":"category-sustainable-forest-management","13":"category-top-stories"},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jason","display_name":"Jason Ross","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/J-Ross-headshot.jpeg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33012,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33007\/revisions\/33012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33007"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=33007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}