Asset protection & insurance
How to best protect your forests.
Plantation Insurance
Plantation trees are valuable and increase in value over their lifetime. Plantation trees are also susceptible to mortality and damage from natural disturbances such as wildfire. Hence, plantation insurance is available, and you may want to consider this insurance, especially before the next fire season to ensure your plantation is covered not only for its value, but also for potential clean-up costs.
Plantation insurance can provide protection for plantations and timber stacked during harvesting against damage from fire, lightning, explosion and windstorms. Cover is also available for removal of debris and re-establishment costs.
Forest insurance is a specialised service offered by only a few insurers, but your own insurance broker may be able to assist and would be worthwhile contacting.
Be aware that there are set dates each year (often well before the summer season) by which insurance policies must be arranged.
Refer to Directory of Tasmanian Forestry Services for a list of plantation insurers known to Private Forests Tasmania or visit the Forestry Australia website for additional information.
Fire Prevention at Forest Operations
The Tasmanian Forest Industry Management Committee (FIFMC) was established in the early 1990's and consists of Forest Managers (industrial/government), RTO's and contractor representatives to establish fire management benchmarks and best practice for the forest industry.
Procedures have been developed by the FIFMC and endorsed by the Tasmanian Fire Service with an objective to minimise the incidence of wildfire resulting from forest and related operations and to ensure compliance with relevant regulations.
Procedures outline minimum fire equipment requirements for forest operations and procedures to follow to reduce the risk of fire.
Fire Prevention Guidelines for Tasmania's private plantations
The guidelines provide a voluntary, good‑practice framework to support fire prevention planning across Tasmania’s larger private plantation estate. They have been developed collaboratively by industry and fire management stakeholders to help reduce the risk of bushfires impacting plantations, neighbouring landholders, public assets and local communities.
The guidelines focus on fire prevention rather than fire response and cover key aspects of plantation design, management and operations, including firebreaks, access and water points, setbacks from built assets, and guidance on planned burning and stakeholder engagement. The intent is to support consistent, risk‑based decision‑making while recognising the diversity of plantation ownership, scale, and operating contexts across Tasmania.
Importantly, the guidelines are voluntary and are intended to complement, not replace, existing legal and regulatory requirements. Plantation managers remain responsible for compliance with the Forest Practices Act, the Forest Practices Code, fire permitting arrangements and any other applicable obligations, regardless of whether they choose to adopt the guidelines in full or in part.
The guidelines are a Forest Industry Fire Management Committee (FIFMC) document hosted on the Private Forests Tasmania website.