Way clear for woodchip export ban—society

Press, 25 September 1989, Page 9

Way clear for woodchip export ban—society

PA Wellington The collapse of Venture Pacific’s proposals for a native chipmill on the West Coast meant nothing stood in the way of the Government banning exports of native woodchips, says the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. The society’s conservation director, Mr Kevin Smith, said Venture Pacific had abandoned the original plan for a hi-tech plant producing furniture hardwood from the 77,000 ha of West Coast beech production forest. “Officials had previously argued that commitments to Venture Pacific were an obstacle to a woodchip ban. The Government’s rhetoric on the need to end the woodchipping of native forests urgently needs to be matched by political action,” Mr Smith said. “Venture Pacific was looking at a

head-on confrontation with conservation groups if it pushed ahead with the woodchipping proposals which would have seen the clearance of IOOOha of beech forest a year. “It is to be congratulated for having the foresight not to pursue that destructive course. “Other companies eyeing West Coast beech forests as an industrial feedstock for the pulp mills of Asia should take heed of the Venture Pacific experience. “Any proposals for large-scale export woodchipping of these forests will be vigorously opposed by conservationists and are most unlikely to stand the test of an environmental impact report. “Utilisation proposals for these forests need to be scaled down to small-scale operations producing high-value products,” Mr Smith said.