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Sustainable forest management
in New Zealand
Alan Reid, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, New Zealand
C
ontemporary forestry approaches in New Zealand reflect
some key decisions and developments from past decades.
They also reflect the unique character of our relatively
slow-growing and strongly endemic indigenous forests, the major-
ity of which now reside within the Government-administered
conservation forest estate. The transition of production forestry
from dependence on indigenous forest timbers to the introduced
species-dominated, and largely privately owned, commercial
planted forests introduced in the second half of the 20th century
marked an important change for forestry.
The mature planted forests that made this change possible began
with experimentation work, starting in the late 19th century with a
range of Northern Hemisphere tree species, leading to later decisions
by the Government and private companies to establish commercial
planted forests. Field assessments in the same period showed that
indigenous forests would be unable to provide continuing supplies
of timber in the future. Much of the first generation of New Zealand’s
planted forest estate, and eventually the resource base for the timber
processing industry, commenced in the late 1920s and continued
through the years of the Great Depression.
From the 1970s deeper public engagement in forest and forestry
issues and more general debate around environmental values, espe-
cially related to the remaining indigenous forests, coupled with
1980s changes in the administration of forests, had further far-
reaching effects. All events along the timeline from the earliest work
have shaped the New Zealand model of sustainable forest manage-
ment (SFM). Changing perceptions and understanding about SFM
have continued to shape the New Zealand view. The influence and
role of the Maori people in the evolving ideas around forests, and
their involvement in a broad range of economic, social and cultural
issues on forests, have also had an impact.
These events are important in the contemporary New Zealand
approach to SFM and how we see the challenges from climate
change and the influence of a broader array of social, environmen-
tal and economic values. Forests are embedded in New Zealand’s
physical, social and cultural landscape. All of New Zealand’s
forests – plantation and indigenous – deliver numerous services
including soil conservation, enhancing water quality, biodiver-
sity and recreation. Planted forests deliver most of New Zealand’s
timber supply.
Changing role of New Zealand’s forests
New Zealand lies in the southern Pacific Ocean, 1,600 km east of
Australia. It is made up of the North and the South Islands and a
number of smaller islands, with a total land area of 26.8 million
hectares (ha). In the relatively short time of human
influence, and particularly during the last 200 years,
New Zealand’s forests have played an important role in
the country’s economic and social development.
Before the arrival of the first human settlers, about 80
per cent of New Zealand was forested. In pre-human
times natural forests dominated the landscape. Isolation
over a long period from other land masses resulted in
high endemism and unique plant and animal biodi-
versity. Polynesian inhabitants cleared large areas,
a process that continued with greater intensity after
European settlers arrived in the mid-19th century and
into the 20th century. Over time the forest area was
extensively cleared and modified through logging,
expanding agriculture and settlement, and the effects
of human-introduced invasive pests and weeds.
Today, forests cover approximately 8.3 million ha,
or 31 per cent, of New Zealand’s land area. Of this, 6.5
million ha (24 per cent) are indigenous and 1.8 million
ha (7 per cent) are planted forests which support a
well-established processing industry. 99.9 per cent of
timber harvest comes from commercial planted forests
and forestry is New Zealand’s third largest export earner
after dairy and meat products, while contributing over 3
per cent to the country’s gross national product. About
5 million hectares of the approximately 6.5 million ha
of indigenous forests remaining in New Zealand are
managed within the Crown Conservation Estate by the
Department of Conservation for biodiversity conserva-
tion, natural heritage and recreation purposes.
Planted and indigenous forests share some common
values. In particular, planted forests, as well as being the
mainstay timber source, also have social and environ-
mental roles and thereby play a key complementary role
to the unique biodiverse indigenous forests. All forests
provide a range of wood and non-wood forest products
as well as social and environmental services. These serv-
ices include: recreation and tourism, enhancing cultural
development, biodiversity, diversification of urban and
rural landscapes, employment, conservation, protection
of soil and water, rehabilitation of degraded lands and
carbon sinks.
Statutory and policy framework
New Zealand adopted a clear administrative and func-
tional separation between the substantially reserved