Expenditure on forestry and forest products research in Australia

Summary

Changes over time in the level and distribution of expenditure on research into forestry and forest products have been estimated for three periods of time - 1985/86, 1989/90 and 1994/95. During the period from 1985/86 to 1994/95 expenditure increased from $31.89 m in 1985/86 to $45.44 m in 1994/95 for production-oriented forest research and from $ 15.12 m to $20.07 m during the same period for forest products research. When inflation over this nine year period is taken into account, there has been a reduction in real expenditure (in 1994/95 dollars) of $3.6m and $2.6m for forest and forest products research respectively. The fragmentation of effort in organisations undertaking research, together with the diversity of topics being addressed, raises concerns about the effectiveness of expenditure, especially when considered in relation to some other forest growing countries. Probable initial effects will be loss of expertise in some areas, reduced recruitment of young scientists, and deterioration in research effort in the longer term.