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Plantation Forests Facing Decline

Posted on: Saturday, 11 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By CRONSHAW, Tim

New Zealand's shrinking plantation forests are in danger of declining further. New plantings, which peaked at 98,000 hectares in 1994, are now at their lowest level since 1960.

In an annual review of forest planting, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) estimates that 6000ha of new forest land and 32,000ha of harvested land were planted last winter.

This is well below the 10,600ha and 40,600ha planted in 2004.

Forestry land would decline if commodity prices remained in a downturn and the Government did not alter its climate-change policy, said Forest Owners' Association chief executive David Rhodes.

"If nothing changes, forestry will continue to struggle."

The falling planting rates confirmed that the Government climate- change policies relating to forestry needed to be overhauled, he said.

"New Zealand is relying on a growing area of plantation forestry to provide a carbon sink, locking up greenhouse gases produced elsewhere in the economy.

"In fact, the forested area has declined partly because of the Government's Kyoto policies."

The MAF review estimates that 7000ha of the 39,000ha harvested last year was deforested.

But the downturn in agricultural commodity prices could yet act in forestry's favour, said Rhodes.

The competition for land from a strong agriculture industry could become more subdued and allow forestry to make some recovery.

"Part of it is going to depend on what the Government does in its climate-change policy."

Forestry owners wanted to be involved before the policy was announced in March, and ministers had signalled that forestry owners would have an input, he said. They wanted the Government to support the industry by at least paying for services relating to climate change.

Wood from forestry trimming could act as a substitute for the burning of fossil fuels for domestic heating. It needed to be recognised that this would reduce carbon in the atmosphere, said Rhodes.

Forest owners were also promoting forestry's benefits to stabilise water quality, protect lakes and rivers from nitrogen and phosphate pollution, prevent soil erosion, and reduce the huge costs to the taxpayers of floods such as those that hit the North Island.

"The Government needs to look at plantation forestry as an asset with multiple values to society," he said.

If growers were rewarded only for its value as a cash crop, taxpayers would end up paying for the environmental costs of land- use conversions.

Declining forestry areas are not expected to affect employment in the short term, because of high planting rates from the 1970s to 1990s.

However, forest owners say that deforestation is putting at risk many important conservation values associated with forestry, such as protecting hillsides from erosion and reducing flooding.

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Source: Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand

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