Forestry

Click here to return to the policy homepage.

• Not available on their website yet.

• Placing an immediate ban on the import and sale of all illegally harvested timber and wood products.
• Increase the level of funding to DoC, MfE and MAF for pest control and to raise awareness among land owners and local and territorial authorities about the importance of investing in the long-term rehabilitation of damaged native forest estate by replanting or silviculture treatment to encourage natural regeneration.
• Work with industry to have at least 30% of the plantation forestry portfolio in superior high value species in 10 years.
• Promote and encourage farm forestry and woodlots on agricultural land, especially lower productivity, erosion prone land and sensitive catchments, by encouraging the dissemination of information to farmers and landowners. This can be through organisations such as the Farm Forestry Association and Landcare Research.
• Provide greater investment certainty to the forestry industry by introducing a floor price for the value of carbon for new planting, and charging a very modest premium to foresters for this security (see section 3.1.1 of the Green New Deal on Forestry, Pest Control and Wilding Conifers). (more here)

• A ‘tax deferral’ for investment in plant and equipment in the forest and wood products industry, by means of an accelerated depreciation provision.
• Reintroduce an R&D tax credit to encourage stronger private investment in high-quality R&D.
• Stabilise the price of carbon in New Zealand by requiring 50 per cent of all emissions surrendered to be New Zealand units rather than international units.
• Make suspensory loans available (repayable on harvest) to cover the costs for planting new forests, with the option of joint planting ventures with iwi.
• Introduce new regulations to protect forestry workers, support the Independent Forestry Safety Review, and introduce a corporate manslaughter law. (more here)

• Not available on their website yet.

• Not available on their website yet.

• Invest $22.5m to provide landowners up front grants to establish forests of between 5 and 300 hectares through the Afforestation Grant Scheme.
• Encourage the planting of around 15,000 hectares of new forests, much of the new forestry is expected to be on low-quality land not ideal for farming.
• Safeguard and fund the scheme for the next five years.
• Investigate ways to enhance the scheme, including making it more accessible and flexible for applicants. (more here)

• Institute a Minimum Domestic Log Price to discourage the export of raw logs. This will ensure that local sawmills have access to sufficient supplies, and further encourage the processing of timber and wood products in New Zealand.
• Implement a regulatory and taxation regime which recognizes the long-term nature of returns from forest plantings, and further incentivises both replanting, and local manufacturing of finished products.
• Encourage the use of wood and wood products in building through Buy New Zealand-made for Government procurement, and other initiatives intended to maximize sustainability and returns to the domestic economy.
• Maximize New Zealand ownership of forests through restrictions on overseas ownership of lands and cutting rights.
• Delay the imposition of any form of Carbon Tax or Emissions Trading Scheme on our primary producers and processors until such time as our major trading partners have implemented their own such measures. (more here)

• Assist the forest sector to move up the value-added chain through research and development and industry partnerships, so that value-added products derived from our forests, rather than unprocessed chips or logs, are exported to the greatest extent possible.
• Work closely with the forestry industry and other interested parties, such as recreational users, to maintain a strategic overview of issues affecting or impacting on outdoor recreation, such as sambar deer and public access.
• Ensure that NZ producers of sustainably-harvested timber products are not undercut via the “dumping” of imported timber and products that have been harvested without regard to sustainability criteria.
• Introduce more significant discounts on employer levies for those who undertake workplace safety regimes, and give more responsibility to industry sector groups to ensure safe practices (such as the Independent Forestry Safety Review Panel).
• Establish legal guidelines for drug-testing in the workplace, to ensure there are no barriers to implementing testing. (more here)