Private forest logging continues

Press, 13 July 1988, Page 3

Private forest logging continues

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

The Government has been criticised for failing to implement its election commitment to encourage the protection of native forests in private hands. Now is an ideal time to implement it, according to the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. The Conservation Department estimates that about 2000 ha of private native forest are logged each year. With the ending of subsidies to clear bush for exotic trees and/or pasture, most private native forest clearance now is for woodchips although there is still considerable

logging of native forest for sawlogs. The society said the Government’s failure to encourage private forest protection was particularly serious for Maori landowners. They faced the dilemma of having to pay rates while holding communally owned land as shareholders. Pressures on them to clear land had not yet been matched by financial incentives to protect it. Although it had promised a Maori land protection scheme long ago, the Government had not yet set it up, the society said.