Attitudes of landholders to farm forestry in tropical eastern Australia

Abstract

The area planted to farm forestry in the Wet Tropics region of north Queensland is small, despite favourable climatic conditions and the availability of many native species that grow rapidly and produce high-quality timber. This paper reports the results of a survey which explored landholder attitudes to farm forestry, including the reasons why landholders in the region plant trees, perceived obstacles to greater participation in farm forestry activities, and attitudes to various incentives designed to encourage planting. Landholders place much greater importance on environmental and personal satisfaction as reasons for planting trees than on commercial gain. The main impediments to planting more trees for commercial purposes were associated with economic and structural impediments, and satisfaction with the current land use. Economic incentives such as harvest security, tax deductions, local government rate remissions, planting grants, higher market prices and subsidised seedlings were considered to be more important than incentives associated with provision of information and joint venture arrangements. The results of the survey are discussed in the context of possible policy prescriptions that can be made at local, state and federal government levels to facilitate greater tree planting in the region.