The forest industry wants to work with Indigenous communities, to ease the skills shortage.

A national pilot program to set up business partnerships will be launched within weeks by the new Forest and Wood Products Council.

Catherine Murphy from the National Association of Forest Industries says there is strong support for the new program.

"The forestry industry is located in rural and regional Australia and that's particularly where we have high unemployment among our Indigenous communities," she said.

"Many of my companies are keen to engage with those Indigenous communities, to offer real employment opportunities for Indigenous people in the forestry sector."

The council has also agreed to look at increasing current levies to pay for industry promotion.