2025: Partnering for impact

2025 was a year of progress, development and strategic renewal for the Institute. A key achievement was the launch of the FRI Strategy 2025–2030, which sets a clear roadmap for the Institute’s future growth and reaffirms our ambition to be a global leader in applied forest and forest product research. The Strategy introduces a refreshed structure built around our four complementary research centres, and identifies three cross-cutting themes to strengthen collaboration, research impact, partnership growth and long-term sustainability.

Throughout the year, FRI maintained a strong externally funded research portfolio, and delivered a broad range of nationally and internationally significant projects that supported industry innovation, informed policy and strengthened partnerships with government, industry and community stakeholders.

The commencement of the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations Centre for Sustainable Futures (AFWICSF) created new opportunities for collaboration across the forestry and forest products sector and strengthened UniSC’s leadership role in addressing nationally significant challenges in sustainable forest management, forest health and resilience, timber utilisation, bioeconomy development, workforce capability and climate adaptation.

The Institute also strengthened collaborations with government agencies, industry organisations, First Nations partners, community organisations, and research institutions across Australia and internationally.

Together, these achievements have strengthened FRI’s foundations and positioned the Institute for continued growth, innovation and impact in the years ahead.

Highlights

• AFWICSF commenced a series of innovative research projects, including ‘SilvaNaut’, which will accelerate automation in Australia’s plantation forestry sector and address the issue of safe, reliable navigation in environments that are far more complex than agricultural settings.
• Collaboration with industry project partners continued on the Timber Circularity Project, which is focused on identifying circular pathways for preservative treated timber and engineered wood products (EWP) to keep timber out of landfill. 
• FRI researchers continued to lead national and international research networks, industry advisory groups, standards development and professional associations, strengthening the Institute’s reputation and influence across the forestry and forest products sector. One example is the FRI’s Forest Pest Management Research Consortium, which aims to support a productive and sustainable Australian forest industry by developing effective, environmentally and socially responsible ways to manage weeds, pests and diseases, promoting industry best practice, and providing trusted scientific advice to government, regulators and industry.

Making a difference: Our research in action

Mobile chipping innovation driving a new era in biomass recovery

Each year across Australian pine plantations, harvest practices generate large volumes of what are known as ‘harvest residues’: leftover branches, treetops and other tree materials that remain after logs and timber products have been removed. Traditionally, harvest residues have been left on site or managed through methods like slash burning, leading to lost economic value and avoidable environmental impacts.

Since 2011, FRI researcher Dr Mohammad R Ghaffariyan and his team have led an industry-funded research program that aims to transform the way Australia’s plantation forestry sector manages and utilises harvest residues. The team has developed and tested innovative approaches to recover and process this material efficiently, creating new opportunities for biomass utilisation and renewable bioenergy production.

The research began by evaluating mobile chipper technologies and operational configurations to assess productivity in recovering harvest residues, with initial findings showing potential for biomass recovery rates of up to 50 percent. Later work combined system integration and logistics optimisation to develop and deliver an integrated harvesting method that brought together conventional sawlog and pulpwood extraction with biomass recovery in a single coordinated operation. This work has demonstrated that biomass recovery can be incorporated into conventional forestry operations with minimal impacts on productivity. 

These findings provided the evidence needed for industry adoption, leading to the deployment of mobile chipping technology and new biomass recovery practices across commercial plantation and forestry operations in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The work has directly informed investment decisions and operational improvements, and the integration of biomass recovery into mainstream harvesting systems.

The program has delivered both industry and environmental benefits, including new revenue opportunities, reduced waste, and lower carbon emissions through an estimated 20-30 percent reduction in slash burning. Research methods developed by the team have also been adopted by other Australian and international researchers. 

While the work’s full impact has yet to be realised, its potential is significant: Dr. Ghaffariyan’s team has estimated that, if implemented across 200,000 hectares, the system could produce 4–6 million tonnes of biomass annually, generating an additional $120–180 million in revenue. At the same time, it would deliver significant environment benefits, enabling more sustainable bioenergy production with reduced emissions while maintaining soil fertility.

From harvest residues to future fuels: Unlocking value through biomass utilisation

Internationally, there is growing interest in using biogenic resources to replace fossil fuels, with the aim of reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on imported energy sources. Forest harvest residues – such as branches, treetops and other tree materials left over after log harvesting – have been considered as a potential alternative but have limitations, including that they are expensive to collect and transport. 

Led by Institute Director Professor Mark Brown, FRI researchers have undertaken a long-term research program to assess the practical and economic feasibility of different residue harvesting, processing and transport methods, to better inform policy and decision-making around their future use. Working with eleven industry partners across Australia, and drawing on international experience and extensive fieldwork, the team has measured the quantity of available residues across a range of settings and evaluated the performance and costs of various harvesting systems. In the process, their work has identified several ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

An early key finding showed that collecting residues during log harvesting, concentrating them at harvest sites and allowing them to dry before transport could reduce delivered costs by up to 30 percent. Other findings demonstrated that not every approach is effective: some technologies, such as slash bundling and certain infield chipping systems, were found to be more expensive than alternative methods, and therefore unlikely to be economically viable.

The program has produced 53 peer-reviewed journal articles, informed government policies and industry reports, and contributed to the development of a pine harvest residue export industry in Western Australia that now supplies more than 100,000 tonnes of biomass annually. 

Looking ahead, the research’s next stage proposes to test and determine how much residue can be removed from harvest sites without affecting soil health, carbon storage or future forest productivity. This work aims to develop practical guidelines for forest managers to support sustainable, economically beneficial practices across Australia’s forest industry.

Resources

Download the report (PDF)