Forestry is going to look different in Tairāwhiti, says minister

Forestry Minister Todd McClay says Tairāwhiti won’t be turning its back on forestry, but it will be done differently in the future after the region was inundated with woody debris and silt following last year’s cyclones.
“There are some people saying that forestry is over through Tairāwhiti, and that’s not correct at all,” McClay said in an interview. “It will continue. There will be forestry.
“There are areas where pine plantation makes a lot of sense. Where there is very high risk, the land use will have to change.”
Plantation forestry covers 21 percent of Tairāwhiti, on some of the country’s most erosion-prone land. Gisborne District Council wants to introduce new rules to move the most unstable, steep and dangerous land into more sustainable permanent vegetation cover to try to hold the soil in place and keep debris out of waterways. 
McClay said Tairāwhiti was dealing with the consequences of legacy issues from past decades when trees were planted under different rules, and in some cases by different owners.
“There will be places where trees have been planted under the rules at the time that allowed them, where it is very challenging,” he said.
The council has set up a Transition Advisory Group, including farmers, foresters, Māori landowners, environmentalists, council and Government officials, to work out how to help landowners make the change to a more sustainable land use. 
Its recommendations are due by April next year. 
“I don’t envy the council, because it’s a very, very large and difficult job, but they are taking it on, head on, and they are now finding ways to work with the business community for better outcomes, and I have every faith that we will get a good outcome,” McClay said.
“We’re there as a partner with them and we’re working very very closely.”
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz has said compensation was one of the issues being looked at and McClay flagged it as an area of ongoing work and discussion as decisions get made with industry, and with the council as they will be the decision-making body.
He said the council was taking a pragmatic approach to the future of forestry in the region, identifying areas suited to pine plantations and those that weren’t.
“In the past, the rules said you can plant anywhere and everywhere.
“In the future, the rules will say you can only plant in so many areas, and these are the conditions,” he said.
“The forestry sector said that they are willing to do that. In fact, they’ve said it doesn’t make sense to them to be planting in high-risk areas where it’s more challenging to take wood out of [and] there’s going to be environmental degradation.”
The Government has spent more than $110 million removing debris and sediment from Tairāwhiti and there is potential for more woody debris to come down from the hills – the actual amount is being investigated via aerial mapping.
McClay has set up the Tairāwhiti Forestry Action Group, including forestry owners and contractors, farmers and iwi, to accelerate the clean-up and look at ways to mitigate future risk.
“We have to deal with a legacy issue of the wood that’s sitting there and has been for a long time, but is still likely to come down, and then we need enduring rules for the future,” he said.
A slash trap to capture woody debris and prevent it from travelling down rivers and damaging bridges, roads and other infrastructure has been mooted as a potential solution. 
A previous proposal wasn’t able to get consent but McClay said the idea seemed to have some merit – it’s used overseas and one has been set up in Hawkes Bay.
McClay noted that forestry was a very important part of the economy – the third-largest commodity export behind dairy and meat.
“Many of our regions and the jobs in those regions depend upon it, and it has an important contribution to not only meeting our climate change obligations, but also as an export earner,” he said.
Forestry accounts for 8.7 percent of Tairāwhiti’s GDP, and 4.4 percent of workers in the region are employed in the sector.
“Commercial forestry plays a very important part of that economy,” he said. “It’s very hard to replace it in the short to medium term, but we should only be thinking about replacing if there’s a need to and ultimately, there are many areas where forestry still makes a lot of sense.
“Ultimately, there needs to be economic activity in that region.”
The relationship between council and forestry companies became “strained” after the cyclones given the council was responsible for setting rules and enforcing them, and the forestry sector was responsible for a lot of the damage that had been done, he said.
However, with the passing of time, they were now working together to find solutions, he said. 
“The forestry companies themselves are thinking about how they can meet their obligations, and they now want to sit down with the council and work these things through, and so I think we’ll get a much better outcome,” he said.
Whether permanent native forest was a better option for some steeper areas was a decision for Tairāwhiti rather than Wellington, he said.
“One of the things we want to do is to devolve responsibility much more. The people that live in the Gisborne area have a greater ability to make decisions for what is best in their area,” he said.
McClay said work was underway to review the sequestration benefits of native trees, which could form part of the solution.
The default carbon tables in the Emissions Trading Scheme, based on the best available science in 2008, state that a hectare of 10-year-old pine has three to five times the carbon stock of a hectare of indigenous forest at the same age.
Olivia Sullivan, Director Forestry System at Te Uru Rākau New Zealand Forest Service, said under the Maximising Forest Carbon programme they were undertaking research to increase their understanding of carbon sequestration in indigenous forests, including both regenerating and those being managed to get to tall forest.
McClay said a lot had been learned since the first carbon tables were put in place.
“My feeling is from talking to experts in the field, foresters, that there are many different ways to create other types of forests now, native forests, to give greater certainty that they will survive and they sequester carbon. There are opportunities through the ETS for that to be recognised,” he said.
McClay said forestry companies would fund any native regeneration themselves, building it into their economic model and the returns they got from commercial trees.
“It’s not that we’re going to be coming there and saying, ‘if you can’t plant this gully, we’ll pay for that’ – that has to be part of their commercial consideration. But the forestry sector says they’re able to manage that.
“It’s a commercial decision whether they want to replant or not, and rules always change.”
Some forestry companies had already decided to retire land, he said.
“Foresters don’t want to plant trees where there’s a risk that they won’t get to harvest them in 20 years’ time and they get no return because you can’t insure against these events.
“Where there is very high risk, the land use will have to change, but there’s acceptance of that. Where it isn’t high risk, then other types of forestry methods are likely to allow forestry to continue, although it could be different, and there’ll be other areas there where forestry can continue as is, because there isn’t risk and it hasn’t caused harm.
“Compensation comes up when they said you won’t be able to plant anywhere, at all.”
McClay said he had sought advice on what options would be available to foresters who weren’t able to replant forests that had accrued carbon credits under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
He said some groups were looking at planting trees with much shorter growing periods, resulting in smaller forests and different forestry practices, which could be used as fuel for bioenergy. 
“The businesses that are looking at it are working through that at the moment, but the Government’s very interested in that. We’re very open to looking at those ideas.
“If those come off, there’s an additional opportunity to create economic activity and jobs for the region that doesn’t exist today.”
McClay and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones are heading to the region at the end of this week where they plan to start talks about ways the Government could support either change of business activity or the creation of new businesses through initiatives such as regional development funds.