Vital stats – logging
Damning new data on logging has come out in a very thorough report by PriceWaterhouse Coopers. Employment in native forest logging represents 0.006% of the state’s workforce. Each full-time equivalent job in native forest logging costs a staggering $5,041,000 in infrastructure investment. That is 12 times the average for a job in Victoria and 10 times that of a job in the plantation sector (which provides more than 77 per cent of all forestry jobs in Victoria).
The Central Highlands forest region shows that the value of paper and timber products (that is, the contribution to state GDP) is $29 a hectare a year. Water is worth 72 times that ($2,033), and tourism worth 12 times ($353). The PwC Environmental and Economic Accounting Analysis of logging detailed this and more. Certain Ministers kept their blindfolds on and remain in denial.
But there are yet deeper problems – read the article on the report from the Age here