Plans to log forests alarm conservationists

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 7

Plans to log forests alarm conservationists

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington Plans to log forests south of the Cook River in South Westland have alarmed the Nature Conservation Council. The counil’s executive officer, Mr Allan McKenzie, said such indigenous forests were of international importance and plans to log them were unacceptable. He was referring to the final report of the Government working party on South Westland which had recommended 20,000 ha be held in neutral tenure

while its potential for "sustained eco-system management” was evaluated. He suspected that this phrase was a euphemism for “logging.” While the 20,000 ha to be investigated for production forestry might seem to be only a small part of the total 311,000 ha of forest under consideration, or compared with the 291,000 ha to be reserved, it represented 40 per cent of the lowland forest in the region. South Westland’s forests

represented the last great expanse of lowland indigenous forest left in New Zealand, Mr McKenzie said. Rainforests throughout the world faced a precarious future, he said. South Westland still had a chance to prevent further destruction of these critical eco-systems. The fact that there were no established sawmills working in the area, apart from a small portable mill, indicated that there was no need to use the forests for production,

he said. The long-term economic benefits to the community would be much greater if the forests were left untouched and their values for conservation, recreation and tourism were promoted. The council was concerned that the working party’s report made a travesty of the public submissions process, Mr McKenzie said. More than 90 per cent of the individual submissions on the future of the forests had sought complete protection for them.