Ministerial Conference on
Environment and Development
in Asia and the Pacific 2000
Kitakyushu, Japan 31 August - 5 September 2000
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The Greening of Forestry: Adopted from Smith, K. Conservation Director Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand. The Greening of Forestry: Lessons from the New Zealand Experience. Forestry Reform Seminar, Sydney, Australia, March 1991. This summary is a vital look at the issues of conservation and forestry in the South Pacific Region. Everyone interested in the question of sustainable forestry needs to read it. Around the turn of the century, concerns about the destruction of indigenous forests prompted the legislators to enact a Forests Act and establish the Forest Service. The Service did not alter the policy or practice of Forestry, and logging continued unabated. In 1937, Captain E. Sanderson recommended that the New Zealand Government establish protected forests and place them under a Department of Conservation. Commercial forestry would be compelled by legislation to manage the forests as a perpetual crop without interfering with their scenic value. This recommendation was ignored and clear felling went on as usual. In the 1960's exotic tree plantations became the Forest Service's main preoccupation. (This is the present state of forestry in most Pacific island countries with merchantable forests). Forty years after Sanderson's recommendation, in 1976, The Maruia Declaration (New Zealand's second largest petition with 341,160 signatures) repeated and expanded on the recommendation. The Maruia Declaration sought to evict foresters from any management responsibility for native forests. Submissions showed little public support for continued logging of indigenous forests. The Declaration revealed conflicting responsibilities in the Forest Service which was charged with both producing wood for profit and protecting conservation values. The Forests Amendment Act of 1976 provided for administration of: "All State forest land to ensure the balanced use of such land, having regard to the production of timber or other forest produce, the protection of the land and vegetation, water and soil management, the protection of indigenous flora and fauna, and recreational, educational, historical, cultural, scenic, aesthetic, amenity, ad scientific purposes." The legislation did not set priorities for these uses but in practice, timber production was the foremost priority for forests with exploitable timber. Multiple-use forestry was described as "Having a picnic on a stump." Logging was justified in every indigenous State forest, even those with outstanding scientific or conservation values. The Forest Service continued to ignore the plea for a forest policy against clearfelling and conversion of indigenous forests to exotic forests. Foresters believed their knowledge placed them above political accountability. The multiple-use forest management was used to safeguard its power to log forests. It fought every inch of the way in a bitter retreat over the years from its destructive activities or plans for major indigenous forests. Public and scientific submissions failed to alter their plans. More than 90% of all Wildlife Service reserve recommendations for State Forest land over a 15 year period until 1985 were rejected. Only direct political direction achieved changes. Foresters in New Zealand were recruited direct from secondary school. Some received advanced training in Britain and Australia. This training included practical work in forestry camps in timber towns. In these towns, prevailing anti-conservation sentiments were imprinted on the young trainees. They emerged indifferent or aggressively hostile towards conservationists. Trainees learned to suppress conservationist views. In 1985, a review of the Forestry Service found: "The substitution of an enthusiasm for forestry in place of any commercial accountability led to misleading public accounts, absurdly optimistic planning forecasts, consistently unwise investment and pricing decisions, and above all, disastrous economic losses." Private sawmillers and pulpmakers wasted and misused the native timbers. A seven-tiered bureaucratic hierarchy made efficient management of commercial pine plantations nearly impossible. The Forest Service was able to resist Treasury and Ministerial control over its operations and the wishes of the public were treated with open contempt. Conservation groups decided to abolish the Forest Service and remove production forestry from conservation lands. As the conflict increased, forestry and agricultural subsidies were used to clear over 500,000 hectares of indigenous forest from 1978 to 1984. In 1986, the Labour Finance Ministers removed tax incentives and subsidies to the forest industry and to farmers. It sold off the Forest Service's production equipment and lands and abolished the Forest Service. The Department of Lands and Survey was split up with its land development activities privatized. The Forestry Corporation became a state-owned enterprise and left to operate as a successful business. In 1993, the Forestry Corporation was disbanded and long term leases to the exotic production forests sold on the open market. Two regions were not sold, both with remaining indigenous production forest. The Government has all but removed itself from any direct involvement in commercial forestry. New exotic plantings are mainly on marginal farmland or reverting scrubland. Clearing of native forest to replant exotic tress has largely stopped. Fifty years after Captain Sanderson's campaign began, and ten years after the Maruia Declaration, the Department of Conservation was established in the Conservation Act of 1987. Conservation in New Zealand was legally defined as: "The preservation and protection of natural and historic resources for the purpose of maintaining their intrinsic values, providing for their appreciation and recreational enjoyment by the public, and safeguarding the options of future generations." The Department now controls one third of New Zealand's land surface, administers the coastline, and has responsibility for protected wildlife, marine reserves and marine mammals. All indigenous State Forests and Crown lands are now held as stewardship land. All but 2.5 percent of the publicly owned indigenous forests are now conservation areas. 95% of timber production comes from exotic forest plantations. Although 100,000 hectares were set aside for sustained-yield indigenous forest management, 20 years of trials and experimental logging have failed to produce a workable system. Problems in managing ecologically delicate, slow-growing marginal forests for production and environmental uses are almost insurmountable. Economics push the logger to overcut or concentrate on more accessible forests. Current Government policy is to limit indigenous forestry to low impact small scale single tree extraction producing small volumes of high quality wood. Industry and regional government continue to try and overturn sustainable management constraints.
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