‘Writing on wall’ for woodchip industry

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 32

‘Writing on wall’ for woodchip industry

PA Wellington The Government’s statement yesterday on a new policy for native forests shows the writing is on the wall for the native woodchip export industry, the director of the Maruia Society, Mr Guy Salmon, says. Deforestation was an urgent global issue and it was good to see New Zealand taking a lead in this area.

“Every time a Japanese woodchip ship leaves the port of Nelson, its load of chips represents the destruction of almost 200 hectares of native forest and the death of over 1350 native birds,” he says.

“No environmentally aware Government in this day and age can allow that sort of thing to continue.” The Government’s statement indicated determination to break through the “policy logjam” which held up previous efforts to address the problem.

The present resource management law reform with its emphasis on sustainable use of resources seemed to be heading in the right direction, but too slowly, Mr Salmon said. “It will be several years before we have operative planning schemes under the proposed new legislation, and that will be too late for the remaining private native forests in Nelson, Marlborough, Otago and Southland where there is only a few years clear felling left at the current rate. “The Government should act quickly using its powers to control exports under the Customs Act,” he said. Another matter needing attention was the level of funding available for conservation land acquisition.

“The Queen Elizabeth II National Trust has been most successful in eliciting voluntary conservation commitments by landowners, but the only way to preserve the largest and most important

blocks of native forest is to have a fund to acquire them.

“This need not be very costly, as was illustrated in 1985 when the Government acquired the 28,000hectare Taitapu Estate in Golden Bay for only $27 a hectare.”

Further acquisitions were essential to protect rare wildlife and habitats on private land, he said. The objective of Government policy should be to retain the existing total area of native forest through a combination of protection, sustained yield management and reafforestation in native species. Mr Salmon said that the means adopted for this should reflect the principle of sustainable development, the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and the West Coast Forests Accord.

It was important that the approach taken be acceptable to landowners, whose co-operation was necessary for its success.