• Plantations should be made up of mixed native species.
• Plantations should be established on marginal, already cleared land, not on native bushland and with sensitivity to the wishes of local communities.
• The use of hazardous triazine chemicals (such as Atrazine) should be stopped. These chemicals do not break down easily or quickly, and are soluble in water. Any pollution of soil and water by plantation owners should be met with heavy fines.
• The use of genetically modified species should be stopped.
• Plantations should be used to supply resource demand as a primary alternative to native forest logging.
• Native forest logging must be rapidly phased out in those areas where plantations can readily supply present and future timber demands, considering also sawmill capacity to retool for new technologies and new markets. Fines should be imposed on companies hoarding plantation assets.
• High Value Added markets must take priority.
• We do not support the privatisation of the plantation estate.

The existing plantation base could easily meet current timber needs. However what we are currently witnessing is a hoarding of the existing plantation estate, rapid expansion in plantation establishment and ever increasing native forest logging. Companies such as Daishowa are busy establishing plantations while they decimate the last of our old growth forests. Daishowa are using this plantation establishment as window dressing to give the appearance of a movement towards sustainability. Meanwhile they woodchip over 1 million tonnes a year of native forest from East Gippsland and South East New South Wales.

Plantations hold great promise for the permanent protection of Native Forests. However there are some concerns regarding plantations that need to be considered in the planning of future plantations, such as the clearance of native bushland. For example, in South Gippsland (Victoria) in the Strzlecki Ranges, near the town of Moe, the paper and packaging company Amcor have a permit to clear 2000ha of native bushland for plantations over the next ten years. The State govt overturned Victoria's Native Vegatation Clearance legislation. The Federal government has allocated $1 million towards the establishment of ten thousand hectares of "mostly eucalypt" plantations in this area over the next ten years. Amcor, Latrobe valley electricity suppliers and local farmers are involved.