Forest heritage-jobs debate continues

Press, 31 March 1989, Page 9

Forest heritage-jobs debate continues

WEST COAST farmer Malcolm MacCrae never dreamed it could happen. Having campaigned for the logging of forests on the Coast for years, he suddenly found himself being called a “green.” Mr MacCrae is a dairy farmer at Whataroa, about 115 km southwest of Hokitika. Until recently, he was chairman of the Whataroa Promotion Council. But in a dramatic move at the recent meeting, he resigned. The next day, the other council members followed suit.

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“We were trying to get the middle ground, but the mill people thought we were greens. I never thought I’d be in that position,” says Mr MacCrae.

The battle was over the future of the two South Westland rimu forests, North Okarito and Saltwater. These 1 forests have been set aside for sustained-yield management, which aims at taking only selected trees each year with minimum damage. Clear-felling, on the other hand, means the entire forest can be felled. The Whataroa Promotion Council supported sustained yield, saying it was the only way to maintain the area’s resources and keep the timber industry alive.

But the sawmillers argued that sustained yield could not give them enough timber for the local mills to continue to be viable. Unless more timber could be taken from the forests, 50 per cent of the local population would be affected by job losses. A meeting was called by anonymous “concerned citizens,” and support for sustained yield was overwhelmingly defeated. Mr MacCrae resigned.

JANE DUNBAR

We were trying to get the middle ground, but the mill people thought we were greens’

“We obviously didn’t have their confidence. As one guy said: ‘lf I vote against sustained yield I might have a job, and if I don’t I won’t.’ And I have every sympathy for him.” A resolution was passed to make a plea to the Government to revoke the sustained-yield covenant on the forests. It was hoped the forests could be more extensively milled until the exotics, Tasmanian blackwoods come on stream in about 35 years. About half the forests would be “over-

Photographs by DAVID ALEXANDER

cut,” leaving the rest for sustained yield when the blackwoods were mature.

An answer to this request was given by the end of the month, along with an historic announcement. On February 27, the Government said that all 311,000 hectares of native rainforest south of the Cook River would be protected. Although “strong submissions” had been received for logging native timber north of the river (Saltwater and North

Okarito forests), this was not agreed to. “Our native forests are a precious part of our heritage,” said the Deputy Prime Minister, Geoffrey Palmer. “Only onequarter of the native forests which once covered New Zealand remain today, and we cannot afford further destruction.” The debate continues. The West Coast sawmilling industry’s cutting licences expire at the end of this year. Paynter Sawmills at Whataroa, and Carter-Holt Harvey mills at Harihari and Ruatapu, have a combined annual cut of 70,000 cubic metres, of native timber, taken from the lanthe, Wanganui and Waitangi forests.

Continued logging of that magnitude is "unacceptable and unrealistic,” says the Government. But exotic timber is not yet ready for harvesting. Until it is, sawmillers say the survival of the three mills is seriously in doubt.

“There is an urgent bridging problem to carry the Whataroa and Harihari mills through to the availablity of blackwoods and other special-purpose trees in 2025 or earlier from the Wanganui and lanthe forests,” says lan Wilson, from Paynter Sawmills.

A verbal agreemept has been made by the Government to allow some extension of logging of indigenous timber, but only until 1993.

To further complicate matters, the Government is about to sell the cutting rights to all its production forests, which include South Westland forests of North Okarito, Saltwater, Wanganui, lanthe, Waitangi and Poerua. The planned assets sales are raising concerns about what will happen to the forests under new ownership. A former Forestry Research Institute scientist who lives on the West Coast, lan James, believes the result could be “a tragedy” for New Zealand.”

As part of the legal cutting licenses, rimu rainforest is still being clear-felled. Mr James wants this stopped once licences expire and the cutting rights are sold.

The verbal accord given by the Government in 1987 for a three-year bridging period does allow for the clear-felling to continue, but Mr James believes the industry should be forced to switch over to sustained yield.

Rimu rainforests are an important part of the world rainforest system, and a 600-hectare annual loss is significant, he says. “While 600 ha is relatively small compared to the 30 million hectares being felled annually in the Amazon, it is still a disgrace for a developed country to add so much to the loss of rainforests.”

Mr James believes the verbal accord made by the Government to allow more logging until 1993 is no longer relevant for South Westland because both Paynters and Carter-Holt l Harvey have stated publicly they are not interested in remaining on the Coast if only exotics are avaiable.

Different companies will move in to the area instead — “the perfect time for the Government to put right past problems and allow the West Coast forest industry a new start on a permanent, sustainable and ecologically sensitive basis,” says lan James. Sustained yield will not mean a massive loss of jobs, he says. Rather, it will mean a change of equipment — from traditional sawmills, log winches and bulldozers to helicopters and new portable mills.

"The industry now provides about one job per 500 cubic metres of logs. Sustained yield is more labour intensive and provides about one job per 200 metres. The processing end of the operation including drying, veneering, machining, packaging and marketing should remain about the same.” Working conditions will also be better since more time will be spent out in the forests, says James, adding that West Coasters are so keen for work many labour in sawmills under dirty and noisy conditions for wages often no better than the dole. For the rest of New Zealand, sustained yield would mean rimu continued to be available for such things as doors, furniture and bowls without destroying forests in the process.

Mr James insists it should be "cold turkey” for the timber industry in 1990, with companies being obliged-to switch to sustained yield. “You can’t soften the existing industry into making such a radical change as is required. There will be a great hue and cry at the beginning, but things will settle down, like with changes to the Forest Service.” He believes that the longer clear-felling is allowed to continue, the more damage, is done, and the longer before sustained yield can be looked at seriously as it cannot compete economically with clear-felling.

Mr James admits that sustained yield management has had its problems in the past. On occasions, it had been used as a “wedge in the door” — the volume of forest which could be cut being increased through political pressure, and the whole concept discredited in the eyes of conservationists.

But the practice had never really been “given a go,” and a new start would be made once sustained-yield management was written into law.