Forestry Corporation looks at Coast viability

Press, 21 November 1986, Page 23

Forestry Corporation looks at Coast viability

PA Wellington The viability of the West Coast forests to sustain economic production and provide jobs under a corporation-style business was being given urgent attention, said the chief executive of the Forestry Corporation, Mr Andy Kirkland.

Mr Kirkland said he was aware of the concerns of West Coast people involved in forestry and the corporation was moving as quickly as possible to analyse the potential of new production areas identified in a recent report on the forestry sector. "But our efforts to pro-

vide information to reduce the uncertainty that many on the West Coast are having have been impeded by last-minute constraints on the way the corporation might manage those forests,” he said. “We believed we had overcome the major problem relating to the West Coast forestry sector — that of clearly separating reserves and production areas — but we now find Treasury adding last minute riders to a strategy which had been prepared in close consultation with the West Coast community and its representatives.”

Mr Kirkland said the effect of these constraints

was to reinstate the very uncertainty the working party sought to remove.

"Such a situation cannot be considered acceptable in a commercial environment. We are seeking to have these constraints renegotiated to avoid the second-guessing approach characteristic of public service administration."

Mr Kirkland said that in spite of the doubts cast on the corporation’s ability to work under such constraints it had sent a representative to the West Coast to gather an assessment report on what sort of business the corporation could look at establishing in the area.