Plea to end timber ban

Press, 29 November 1989, Page 4

Plea to end timber ban

By

PAT TAYLOR

in Greymouth

The member of Parliament for the West Coast, Mr Kerry Burke, has put a proposal to the Government that it end the prohibition on the export of native timber from Crown-owned forests.

Mr Burke said yesterday that there was much more logic to the ban in earlier years when the potential supply of native timber was virtually unlimited, and preventing exports was a means of controlling production.

“Today, however, the supply is extremely limited and is on a sustained yield basis,” he said. “If the production levels are controlled, therefore, it seems unnecessary to also control the market. “By giving those timber companies who work native forests on a sustained yield basis, the opportunity to sell their product internationally as well as within New Zealand, I am certain that we will get greater competition for the product and higher prices to the company and the Crown,” said Mr Burke. “This would also raise the value of the Crown’s asset if and when it is sold.

“This matter is separate from the consideration of whether the Nelson-West Coast beech forests should be chipped for export. “As I have indicated on other occasions, the Crown’s beech forest should be available for chipping, but only on the basis that the second crop of trees should be managed in a plantation manner so that a high quality end-use product is available in future. “The beech forest is largely useless for high quality products,” said Mr Burke. “The only possible commercial use for 90 per cent of the forest is for chipping, but this must only be for the first crop and not on a perpetual basis. “The portion of the Crown’s forests available for productive purposes is, of course, minute, with the vast bulk of these forests already being reserved for conservation purposes.”