Determining plantation prospects: parameters and purposes

Summary Consideration of the prospects for Australian plantations in 2002 follows national conferences on the topic, held in 1989 and 1974. Four parameters of change shape the prospects in 2002 in ways that differ from the earlier considerations. Globalisation has reduced the Australian content of the forest products industries. A new forest economy has been mooted based on tradeable permits for carbon emissions and credits for providing ecosystem services. The advance of neo-liberalism in public policy has led to the privatisation or corporatisation of state plantations and a wider range of types of plantation enterprise. The purposes of plantations are now more elaborate and public policies less direct or certain of their outcome.