Foresters are seething at the lack of understanding they claim exists in the Helen Clark Foundation report on the role their sector can play in New Zealand’s future growth opportunities in adding value to food and fibre products.
Earlier this month the Pathways to Prosperity report was released by the foundation, an independent public policy think tank hosted by Auckland University of Technology. The report’s co-authors were the NZ Institute of Economic Research (NZIER).
The report cited the looming impact of aging demographics as a key driver for a need to increase the country’s wealth to pay for greater superannuation and health care.
Pathways outlined included more investment in processing, strategic collaboration to create scale, and larger investment pools.
But Forest Owners Association CEO Dr Elizabeth Heeg said the report’s single biggest failing was its lack of appreciation and recognition of the level of global demand for timber and timber products in the future.
“Not only will the worldwide demand for timber to replace carbon-emitting concrete and steel rise rapidly in the near future, but so too will the demand for wood-based biofuels and other plastic-substitute products increase too,” Heeg said.
A recent review by the NZ Product Accelerator group highlighted an annual $18 billion to $25 billion industry in wood-based fuel and chemical extraction from forest materials as a key growth area for NZ. At present 60% of NZ’s timber exports are as raw logs, largely to China.
The report cites forestry’s current state of play being a largely monocultural, log-focused sector facing environmental and social challenges. It cites erosion issues during harvest, residue or slash impact, and the social impact of changes in land use from pastoral to trees as key issues.
The report does not specify any particular value-added aspects that forestry can bring to areas including hydrocarbon replacements in forest chemicals, higher value wood products or biofuel opportunities.
Heeg challenged the report’s claims about forestry’s impact at a social level, citing a PwC report in 2020 that found forestry generated twice the number of jobs per hectare that hill country farming did.
“That’s way outside any margin of error,” she said.
The report also only fleetingly touches on the value of forestry for generating cash flow from carbon sequestration.
“New Zealand’s production forest estate is arguably also the only tool our country has available to meet its 2050 climate change targets. Our trees offset more than half the nation’s total carbon emissions,” Heeg said.
“These plantation forests have been solely responsible for reducing gross emissions from 76.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide down to 55.7 million tonnes.”
She was concerned the report emphasised popular forestry misconceptions, and downplayed the role forestry can play in maintaining a healthy environment.
“Both forestry and pastoral farming hold important roles in maintaining a mosaic of land uses and both are increasingly planting native vegetation along riparian strips, including sites too steep to plant trees or farm animals,” she said.
She also pointed to research showing trees and their root systems stabilise land for long periods, slowing slip movement and water runoff.
“It is disappointing that the Helen Clark Foundation and NZIER are exacerbating misconceptions about forestry and missing a major productivity opportunity for New Zealand and its bioeconomy.”
