In mid 2009,
two new reports were released on socioeconomic impacts of
plantations on rural communities in Western Australia
and Tasmania were released. This was the culmination of three years
of work in the Communities project on this topic. The studies
explored questions commonly asked about the impacts plantation
expansion has on rural communities.
When we held
group interviews with members of rural communities in 2006, they
asked a lot of important questions about the social and economic
implications of plantation industry expansion for their lives.
While we were not able to answer all the questions – some
very important ones remain, such as how plantation expansion
changes local economic activities – many could be examined in
depth. This was done by accessing independent data from sources
such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics and analysing it to try
to answer key questions about plantations.
One of the
key challenges in this type of study is to ensure that the findings
aren’t oversimplified. Social impacts are different for every
person, and so one person may be impacted positively by plantation
expansion, and another negatively, depending on their individual
circumstances. Some of the common questions asked, and our
findings, are:
-
How much employment is generated by
plantations? In 2006 an estimated 2,730 people worked
in the plantation industry in WA, equating to approximately 2,495
full-time equivalent jobs; while in Tasmania an estimated 1,950
people worked in the plantation industry in 2008. The number of
jobs generated per hectare of plantation differs depending on the
type of plantation – between 0.33 and 0.45 jobs are generated
per 100 hectares of hardwood plantations, and 1.44 to 1.8 jobs per
100 hectares of softwood plantation. In coming years hardwood
plantations are likely to generate more employment as a greater
proportion of the estate reaches maturity and enters harvest and
replanting.
-
How does the employment generated by plantations
compare to other land uses? Plantations may generate
more or less employment than other land uses, depending on the
point in the chain of production at which different land uses are
compared, the type of land use plantations are compared to, and the
type of plantation. While plantations generate fewer jobs before
the ‘farm gate’ than most traditional agriculture, once
downstream processing is included in the analysis they generate
more jobs than grazing and cropping, and less than intensive
agricultural activities such as dairy farming and
horticulture
-
What types of jobs are generated by
plantations? The plantation industry generates a
higher proportion of full-time jobs than the average for the
workforce in WA and Tasmania, and almost as high a proportion of
full-time jobs as traditional agriculture.
-
Where are plantation industry jobs located
compared to other land uses? Plantation industry
workers are more commonly located in large towns and regional
cities than those working in traditional agriculture, and less
likely to be located in small towns or on rural land. Therefore a
shift in land use from traditional agriculture to plantations is
likely to be accompanied by a shift in the location of job
opportunities from smaller towns to larger regional
centres.
-
How does plantation expansion affect rural
population levels? Land use change from agriculture
to plantations leads to different types of population change
depending on how plantations are established. On properties sold to
plantation companies, around 75% of previous residents shift away
when the land is sold. In the majority of cases new residents then
shift into the housing on plantation properties, with the result
that there is a net population of between 7% and 19% on plantation
properties. When land is leased to a plantation company, there is a
net loss of approximately 5% of the population that used to live on
these properties. When farmers establish their own farm forestry,
there is no change in the number of people living on the properties
involved. These changes are not necessarily higher than those that
would occur in the absence of plantation expansion, with trends
such as farm amalgamation having similar impacts on rural
population in many areas; however, further analysis is needed to
confirm this. When population change is examined at a larger scale,
the effect of this small net population loss at individual property
scale isn’t visible, as other factors such as population loss
due to farm amalgamation, and influx of ‘seachange’
residents in coastal regions, have had a larger impact on rural
population than the expansion of plantations. At the local
government area scale, factors such as distance to the coast and
proximity to regional cities are better predictors of population
change than the area of plantations established in a
region.
-
How does plantation expansion influence the type
of people living in rural communities? While there is
a relatively small net loss of population associated with expansion
of plantations, there is a high turnover of residents on rural
properties that are sold to plantation companies. Three quarters of
previous residents shift off these properties when they are sold,
and new residents then typically shift in, either renting houses or
purchasing subdivided housing on the plantation property. This
turnover can create rapid change in the people living in a rural
community, but little is currently known about the characteristics
of these new residents compared to those who shifted away from
plantation properties. We plan to do more research to find out how
these new residents differ to others in rural communities and what
that means for rural communities
-
How does plantation expansion influence service
provision and community groups in rural communities?
There is sometimes, but not always, a slightly higher decline in
school enrolments in areas that experience high plantation
expansion compared to other regions, although the reasons for this
need to be further explored. In a recent survey, landholders who
sold land to plantation companies reported that they ceased or
changed location of their membership of local fire brigades in 60%
of cases, ceased membership of service groups such as Rotary in 32%
of cases, and changed location or ceased membership of sporting
groups in 55% of cases as a result of the sale, while those who
leased properties reported almost no change in community group
membership. The extent to which new residents shifting onto
plantation properties join local groups and access local services
is not known, something which will help determine the net impact of
plantation expansion on community groups and rural
services.
-
How does plantation expansion affect rural land
prices? During period of rapid plantation expansion,
plantation companies have often paid higher than average prices for
land suitable for plantations. This has led to higher than average
land price growth in plantation regions during periods of rapid
plantation expansion. However, sometimes other types of demand for
land lead to similarly high land price rises – for example,
demand for agricultural land for rural residential purposes, or
intensive agricultural uses such as dairy farming.
-
How does plantation expansion affect traditional
agricultural industries? Areas experiencing high
rates of plantation expansion have typically experienced a higher
than average decline in sheep and lamb numbers, and slower growth
in beef cattle numbers and the area of land cropped, compared to
other regions. It does not appear that plantation expansion has
affected expansion of grape growing, horticulture or dairy farming,
with all of these expanding equally rapidly in plantation and
non-plantation regions
-
How do the socio-economic impacts of plantations
vary in different circumstances? The expansion of
plantation estate, or of industry associated with it, can lead to a
wide range of socio-economic changes in rural areas, as can
establishment of any new industry. The impacts of expansion of the
plantation industry will vary depending on the size of the rural
town being examined, the location of processing facilities
associated with the plantation industry, the types of new residents
who shift onto plantation properties, and the types of agriculture
being replaced by plantations. For example:
-
If
employment opportunities shift from small rural towns to larger
regional centres as a result of the land use change, this may have
negative impacts for some people living in the small town, and
positive impacts for some people living in the regional
centres
-
If
land prices rise due to demand from plantation companies, this will
likely have positive impacts for those who wish to sell land, but
may reduce opportunities for other farmers in the area to expand
their farm enterprise through purchasing additional
properties
You can
download the two reports titled Socioeconomic impacts of
the plantation industry on rural communities in Western
Australia and Socioeconomic impacts of the plantation
industry on rural communities in Tasmania from [here].
