Gum
Leaf Skeletoniser biocontrol work- plea for branch funds
Climate
Change Research Grants 2007/2008
Future of Emissions Trading Scheme up in
the air
Forest Industry seeks urgent talks on ETS
A new
export market for forestry?
Forests are good- more forests are better
Russia
delays onerous timber duties- Putin
Time
to stop cobalt deficiency and incomplete analysis for deforestation in
the Central North Island
Disastrous
loss of world forest
President
Patrick Milne patrick@cypress.co.nz
-Nelson
-Marlborough
-North Canterbury
-Central canterbury
-West Coast
Vice President
Denis Hocking jdhocking@xtra.co.nz
-Waitomo
-Taupo & Districts
-Hawkes Bay
-Taranaki
Newsletter editor
Dean Satchell
dsatch@gmail.com
National Executive
John Dermer dermer@inspire.net.nz
-Middle districts
-Tararua
-Waikato
-Wairarapa
-Wellington
Ian Jackson ijacko@xtra.co.nz
-Ashburton
-South Canterbury
-North Otago
-Sthn High Country (north)
Neil Cullen cullen@farmside.co.nz
-Mid Otago
-South Otago
-Southland
-Men of Trees
-Sthn High Country (south)
Dean Satchell dsatch@gmail.com
-Far North
-Mid North
-Lower North
-South Auckland |
Notices
Conference 2009: Due
to many members missing out on registration forms in their Tree Grower,
the registration form can be downloaded from here
(pdf), or can be accessed from the website.
Please inform local members about registering for Conference 2009,
Gisborne 19th-23rd April.
Call
for nominations for election of three executive members at the 2009
conference in Gisborne
Retiring Executive Member (North Island):
Mr John Dermer, R D 7, Feilding.
Elected April 2004.
John is available for re-election.
Retiring Executive Member (South Island):
Mr Neil Cullen, Glenomaru Valley
Road, R D 1, Balclutha.
Elected April 2007. Neil is
available for re-election.
Extraordinary Executive Member vacancy (South Island):
The extraordinary vacancy which
ensued from the election of Patrick Milne as President in 2007 has
remained unfilled.
Non-Retiring Members of the Executive:
National President:
Mr Patrick Milne, 75 Raddens Rd.,
Ohoka, R D 2, Kaiapoi.
Patrick will complete the second
year of a two-year term as President in 2009 but has chosen to serve an
additional one-year term as provided for under the amended clause
11(b)(ii) of the Constitution and Rules.
North Island Members:
Mr Denis Hocking, R D 1, Bulls.
Elected 2001 but had previously
served on the Executive.
Mr Dean Satchell, Skudders
Beach, R.D.1 Kerikeri
Elected March 2006
South Island Members:
Mr Ian Jackson, Hunter, R D
1, Timaru
Elected April 2003.
Nomination forms can be downloaded here.
Nominees for Executive can be nominated only by branches in their
respective islands. Nominees must sign their consent and
nominations must be received by Head Office, by 20 January 2009.
Awards:
Call for Nominations for
NZ Landcare Trust Award
For Innovation in
Sustainable Farm Forestry
In recent years NZFFA has received a grant from the Transpower Landcare
Trust Grants programme for an Innovation Award. The structure of
Grants programme has now been changed to a CommunityCare programme
administered directly by Transpower. Because we were unsure
whether the Innovation Award would qualify for a grant under the new
scheme, we did not call for nominations at the same time as nominations
were called for the Husqvarna Farm Foresters of the Year Awards and the
Michael Hay Memorial Award.
However, NZ Landcare Trust has recently advised us that the Trust
itself will continue to sponsor the Innovation Award, and thus we are
now calling for nominations for this award.
To summarise:
- The Husqvarna Farm
Foresters of the Year Awards (North and South Islands) recognise
excellence and achievement in farms forestry, including service to the
association and the community. Download
nomination form
- The Michael Hay
Memorial Award is a $5,000 grant to enable a younger farm forester to
maintain the impetus of planting trees. Download
nomination form
- The NZ Landcare Trust Innovation
Award recognises innovation in sustainable farm forestry –
“think outside the square”.
Prize:
$2,000. A requirement is that an Innovation Award field day be
held on the property.
Closing date for nominations: 20 February 2009
– note that this is a different date from the closing date for
Executive nominations, but it has been chosen to allow extra time for
branches to formulate nominations and will enable the nominations to be
considered at the NZFFA National Executive meeting on 26 February 2009.
Send nominations by due date to: NZFFA National Office.
Nomination forms may be requested from NZFFA National Office, or downloaded
from here.
Gum Leaf Skeletoniser biocontrol work- plea for branch
funds
Work on the biocontrol of
the gum leaf skeletoniser (Uraba
lugens) has been slowed somewhat by the discovery that
parasitoid Cotesia urabae
does show some interest in one or two indigenous caterpillars/moths in
the same family as Uraba. It is not clear whether this will
be significant in the real world, out in the field, but it
does mean that additional work will need to be done, some of it in
Tasmania where the parasitoid can be studied under normal condition,
rather than the artificial conditions of a laboratory. Much of
this work will be done by an Austalian honours student at the
University of Hobart.
However, this extra work will delay
clearance of this parasitoid for release in New Zealand.
Assuming that the problem is minor and is not considered any threat to
the indigenous moths, the present plan is to delay release of Cotesia urabae
till January 2011, one year later than originally
planned. January is regarded as the most appropriate month
for release, with the highest numbers of Uraba hosts available.
Note that this delay is not due to any problems at the technical level,
and technically the work has gone very well. It is exactly
these sorts on interactions that the testing process is designed to
uncover.
However the delay will inevitably mean extra costs
and the project will require more support from FFA and other sources to
ensure that the Sustainable Farming Fund will continue to support
the project.
The NZ Farm Forestry Association contributes $6,000 per year to the
main project and has promised $1,000 towards the extension.
It would be great to also have support from NZFFA branches in a
financial
position to help. Contact Denis Hocking.
Climate Change Research Grants 2007/2008
More
than $5 million has been allocated to fund the first tranche of
research proposals through the Plan of Action for Sustainable Land
Management and Climate Change. More than 80 proposals totalling $12
million were received in response to a request for proposals –
nearly two-and-a-half times the funding available. Of these, 45
proposals from 25 organisations were successful. The successful bids
focus on research to help the land-based sectors both to reduce their
impact on climate change – known as mitigation – and build
the capability and resilience of the agricultural and forestry sectors
to adapt to a changing climate. Other research proposals aimed to
develop capability and infrastructure within the agriculture, forestry
and horticulture sectors. The full list and final reports of the
successful research proposals are can be found on:
http://www.maf.govt.nz/climatechange/slm/grants/research/2007-08/index.htm
Source: NZIF Newsletter 45
Future of emissions trading scheme up in the air
by
Andrew McEwen, NZIF president
We have a new National-led Government sworn in and supported by three
minor parties (Maori Party, Act and United Future). Some relevant
Ministers include Hon David Carter (Forestry, Biosecurity and
Agriculture), Hon Dr Nick Smith (Environment, Climate Change), Hon Tim
Groser (Conservation, Trade, Associate Climate Change –
International Negotiations) and Hon Dr Wayne Mapp (Research, Science
and Technology)
As a result of the supply and confidence agreement with the Act Party
the future of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is up in the air. The
Government has announced that it is going to delay the implementation
of the legislation passed as one of the last Acts of the previous
Government. It is unclear exactly what this means to the forestry
provisions that were back-dated in the legislation to 1 January this
year, but presumably they are now all to be placed on hold. Will the
Afforestation Grants Scheme be affected? The Prime Minister has
mentioned the possibility that the ETS could be replaced with a carbon
charge – something that NZIF submissions on the ETS proposals and
legislation had advocated. The following extract from the agreement
between National and Act sets out what we know about what is proposed:
National is committed to retaining measures to address New Zealand
’s Kyoto obligations, by making amendments to the legislation
that will balance our environmental responsibilities with our economic
needs. ACT campaigned on a policy of abolishing the ETS.
National agrees to a review by a special select committee of Parliament
of the current Emissions Trading Scheme legislation and any amendments
or alternatives to it, including carbon taxes, in the light of current
economic circumstances and steps now being undertaken by similar
nations.
National further agrees to pass forthwith an amendment to the ETS
legislation delaying its implementation, repealing the thermal
generation ban and making any other necessary interim adjustments until
the select committee review is completed.
ACT is not opposed to New Zealand adopting responsible climate change
policies. What it opposes is an ETS that was never adequately
justified. If a rigorous select committee inquiry establishes a
credible case that New Zealanders would benefit from action by New
Zealand , in conjunction with other countries that are important to us,
ACT would be prepared to support legislation giving effect to such
action. National agrees that the Terms of Reference for such an inquiry
will be mutually agreed between ACT and National and that the Terms of
Reference proposed by ACT are attached as Appendix 1 will be an initial
basis for discussion.
The forestry sector now places another lengthy period of uncertainty
– hopefully we not see another big wave of deforestation and
down-turn in afforestation. I can only hope that at the end of the
proposed select committee process decisions will be made, that they are
meaningful for climate change mitigation efforts, and are practically
based and cost-effective.
In the meantime Labour has also announced its list of spokespeople.
Some of those on the list are Mita Ruanui (Forestry), Stuart Nash
(Associate Forestry), Nania Mahuta (Environment), Maryan Street
(Trade), Charles Chauvel (Climate Change), Moana Mackey (Research,
Science and Technology) and Steve Chadwick (Conservation).
.
Forest
Industry seeks urgent talks on ETS
Media release, NZFOA
24 November 2008
Forest industry seeks urgent talks on ETS
For more information, please ring Peter Berg, Tel 021 421 291
Forest owners are seeking an urgent meeting with government ministers
to discuss the impact of the freezing of the emission trading scheme
(ETS).
Forestry was the first sector to enter the ETS. Since January 1, owners
of Kyoto forests (those planted since 1989) have been able to trade in
emission units.
“Because forestry has such a major role to play in mitigating New
Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions we have been immersed in
climate change policy development for nearly a decade,” says NZ
Forest Owners Association president Peter Berg.
“By the time Labour passed the ETS legislation, our businesses
had adapted to the reality that all parties in parliament apart from
Act supported an ETS in which forestry would have a major role. One of
our major concerns was addressed by National's promise to allow for
forest offsetting.
“So it is fair to say we are concerned about the implications of
National’s Confidence and Supply Agreement with Act. Although
this provides for the implementation of the ETS to be delayed while all
aspects of climate change policy are reviewed, for forest owners this
is in fact a repeal, as we are already in the scheme.”
He says carbon credit contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars
were on the table at the time of the election. Some of these involve
major emitting industries buying credits that could fund the
planting of new forests. These sales may no longer go ahead unless the
issue is resolved quickly.
“Finding a way forward is going to be complex, but it needs to be
attended to urgently. We will be impressing this on the
ministers,” says Mr Berg.
“The government already has contracts with land owners under the
permanent forest sinks initiative. Restrictions on converting pre-Kyoto
forests to other uses, and the related compensation package, all hinge
on the ETS.
“Having such a volatile policy environment harms New
Zealand’s credibility with international investors and makes it
impossible for businesses to plan. Clearly most land owners with plans
for renewed tree planting will have put these on hold until the
situation is clarified.”
He says the preference of forest owners would have been to keep
forestry in the ETS, but the NZ emission units provided for in the ETS
will be valueless if there is no market.
“We will be urging government to reinstate the signals already
developed for forestry so that forest owners who are prepared to create
and maintain carbon stocks for the country are rewarded. The challenge
will be to do this in a way that will not be inconsistent with any
future decisions."
Unlike those who have opposed both a carbon tax and an ETS, the forest
industry has supported both, says Mr Berg, explaining that the
industry's concerns are not to do with the mechanism but with the
uncertainty.
“Our concern is that after years of negotiation and debate we
have arrived back where we started. The debate has gone full circle,"
he says.
“We accept there are issues with the current ETS that need
amending, such as the current uncapped exposure of industry to
price. We expected and support the amendments to the ETS that
National said it would complete within nine months of coming into
office.
"But reviewing is different to repealing. The design of a new system is
unlikely to be completed before 2012, particularly when it will mean a
fresh round of discussions on who should be exempt from what.“In
our view, forestry’s interests are aligned with the
nation’s Kyoto objectives. We remain confident that the
government recognises that forestry is one of the best options for
dealing with New Zealand’s emissions profile.
"Whatever the ultimate decision, the rewards and obligations for
foresters locking up carbon should be the same. The problem is
that the longer the delay in reaching that decision, the more limited
will be forestry’s ability to contribute."
A new export market for
forestry?
While
our forest industry focuses on rewards for carbon stocks, perhaps the
real economic and environmental spinoff from forest carbon is being
overlooked? Tasmanian wood will be exported to Japan for use in wood
fired power plants. Gunns Ltd will export native wood to the Japanese
company Chubu Electric. There have been several exports of fuelwood in
the last 12 months to a variety of customers in Japan. "The Japanese
are like everywhere else in the wortld, they are trying to replace
fossil fuel-powered electricity with renewable electricity which comes
from wood waste" said Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon.
Fuelwood is of a lower standard than pulpwood and there could be a
million tonnes a year of suitable wood spread across Tasmania.
Wood-fired power stations might be a solution to reducing forestry
regeneration burns in Tasmania.
Forests
are good- more forests are better
New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF)
Te P?tahi Ng?herehere o Aotearoa Inc.
MEDIA RELEASE, 20 November 2008
The NZ Institute of Forestry is urging the Government to initiate and
lead the development of a comprehensive, cohesive and long term forest
policy that recognises the unique nature of forestry and the very
significant contributions that forests and forestry make to New Zealand
’s economy, society and environment.
“Forests are not amenable to short term and uncoordinated
policy”, said the Institute’s President, Dr Andrew
McEwen. “Forestry is a long term investment and will not
occur unless the person who plants trees today has a reasonable
expectation that they can be harvested when they mature (which will be
in 25-35 years time for pine trees and up to 150 years for native
species).”
“Forests provide many benefits. While a forest will be
managed primarily for a particular purpose (National Park, conservation
forest, erosion control, water supply catchment, timber production),
each forest will also provide many other benefits (which might include
erosion and flood control, water quality, recreation opportunities,
landscape, shelter, protection of biodiversity, carbon storage,
cultural products, energy and timber). Policy that focuses on
just one benefit to the exclusion of all others does not reflect the
nature of forests and forestry.”
“A viable and profitable forestry sector will result in more
carbon stored in forests which will contribute to climate change
mitigation by reducing emissions today as well as giving our children
more options in the future”, said Dr McEwen. “But a
policy to establish carbon-only forests is unlikely to result in a
viable and profitable forestry sector producing a range of products and
benefits. A better approach is to introduce a comprehensive
policy that recognises the many benefits forests provide and removes,
or at least reduces, the constraints inhibiting the expansion of
forests in New Zealand . We need to start from the premise that
“Forests are Good – More Forests Are Better”, said Dr
McEwen.
The Institute has sent the new Government a comprehensive briefing
paper ‘Forests and Forestry, An Essential Ingredient of New
Zealand’s Economy, Society and Environment’.
The paper discusses the importance of forestry to New Zealand and some
of the features of forests and forestry including:
- Forests occupy over
30% of New Zealand (including National Parks, forests managed by the
Department of Conservation, indigenous forests managed for production
purposes, forests protecting water supply catchments and plantation
forests with the primary objective of timber production);
- Commercial forestry
is one of New Zealand ’s biggest exporters (10% of merchandise
export earnings) and a large employer (over 20,000 New Zealanders are
directly employed in the sector and many more indirectly);
- One of New Zealand
’s biggest tourism draw cards is its scenery and
landscapes. Forests are an integral part of those landscapes;
- Forestry is a long
term investment and it faces many risks (climatic, pests and diseases,
fire, changes in regulations, changes in markets) in the time between
planting the trees and producing a marketable product.
Issues facing the sector include:
- Economic and trade
conditions that act against an increase in local processing;
- Inequitable
treatment of different land uses;
- Difficulties with
the Resource Management Act (such as high costs, inconsistencies across
regions and uncertainty in what will be approved);
- Uncertainty and
change in Government policies.
“Forests can contribute far more to New Zealand than they already
do. We must unlock that potential by a taking a holistic approach
and this must start with the Government developing strong and well
integrated policy”, concludes Dr McEwen.
Russia delays onerous timber duties- Putin
MOSCOW, RUSSIA , Nov. 12, 2008 (PRNewswire) - Russia will delay
introduction of prohibitive duties on raw timber exports by 9-12
months, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Finland 's Prime Minister
Matti Vanhanen at a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
"Taking into account the fact that reduction of supplies from Russia
could
lead not only to production cuts at Finnish factories but also to
negative
social consequences, the Russian government deems it possible to
postpone
by 9-12 months raising tariffs on all non-processed timber," Putin said.
The duties had been set to rise to 80 percent from the start of 2009
from
the current 25 percent, adding to costs for paper companies such as
Stora
Enso, UPM-Kymmene and M-Real.
Time to stop cobalt deficiency and incomplete analysis
for deforestation in the Central North Island
New
Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF)
Te P?tahi Ng?herehere o Aotearoa Inc.
MEDIA RELEASE, 8 October 2008
“It is time for politicians and farm leaders to stop using
knowledge of cobalt deficiency and incomplete economic analysis as
excuses for deforestation”, says Andrew McEwen, President of the
NZ Institute of Forestry. He was responding to comments made by
Chris Kelly, Chief Executive of Landcorp, on National Radio on Tuesday
that the forests his company was converting to dairy farms north of
Taupo were only established because there was no known cure for stock
“bush sickness”. His comments reflected similar ones
made by the Minister of Forestry and Agriculture, Jim Anderton,
speaking as leader of the Progressive Party at the Institute’s
“meet the political party forestry spokespeople” in
Wellington on Monday evening and previously by Pete Hodgson a few years
ago when, as Minister for Climate Change, he said “the trees were
planted in the wrong place”.
“Bush sickness on the Central North Island pumice soils was found
to be caused by cobalt deficiency in the early 1930s. By 1937,
topdressing large areas of deficient land became the norm, virtually
eliminating bush sickness”, says Dr McEwen. “All of
the trees that have been deforested in the last few years were planted
since that time, so there must have been some other reason for their
establishment.”
A detailed study1 in the 1960s by agricultural and forestry economists
of a Waikato land development scheme demonstrated that, at that time,
forestry would generally give a better return than agriculture.
There were differences in the relative performance depending on
assumptions of social costs (such as effects on rural
communities). “The study compared agriculture and forestry
over the full life of a forest crop – rather different from using
a relatively short period of high prices to say that agriculture is
superior, while all the poor years are ignored”, said Dr
McEwen. “But the study did not include environmental costs,
and we now have significant evidence of the effect of land use on
these”.
As early as 1967, there were warnings about the damaging consequences
of large scale agricultural development in the Taupo basin2. But
a plea that such land development should not be permitted was
ignored. Now central and local government are contributing $82
million to assist in the cost of reversing the declining quality of
Lake Taupo (and another $72 million for similar problems in the Rotorua
lakes). In July this year, Environment Waikato released a
critical report3 on the state of soil and water resources in the
region, which echoed similar findings by the Parliamentary Commissioner
for the Environment in his 2004 “Growing for Good”
report4. “Will those who have caused the problem be asked
to pay to clean up the waterways?” asks Dr McEwen. A 2006
study5 on the effect of land use change on the flood hydrology of
pumice catchments (and particularly the one in which State-owned
Landcorp is converting forest to farm, an operation for which no
resource consent was required) found that such conversions will result
in substantial increases in peak discharge during high rainfall events
– and that could create the need for increased river maintenance
work to stop-banks in the Waikato River. “Has Landcorp
incorporated these costs in its analysis and will its client pay
them?”
Add such costs to the liabilities arising from greenhouse gas emissions
and we conclude that substantial environmental costs can be associated
with some land uses. “As long as society is prepared to
fund these costs, we will continue to hear the cry that ‘the
trees are in the wrong place - agriculture is more profitable than
forestry’”, says Dr McEwen. “This will inhibit
the search for and uptake of more environmentally friendly land use
practices. A more complete economic analysis, that incorporates
society’s subsidy for environmental effects, is likely to show
very different relativities and is long overdue.”
References
1. Ward, J.T.; Parkes, E, Grainger, M.B. and Fenton, R. 1966:
An economic analysis of large-scale land development for
agriculture and forestry. Lincoln College Agricultural Economic
Research Unit Publication 27.
2. Jackson, D.S. 1967: Editorial Notes. NZ Journal of
Forestry 12(1), p 1-3
3. Environment Waikato . 2008: The Condition of Rural
Water and Soil in the Waikato Region – Risks and Opportunities.
4. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
2004: Growing for Good: Intensive Farming, Sustainability
and New Zealand ’s Environment.
5. Mulholland, Murray. 2006: The Effect of Land Use
Change on the Flood Hydrology of Pumice Catchments, Environment Waikato
Technical Report 1006/35
Disastrous loss of world forest
Pavan Sukhdev of Deutsche Bank on
Disastrous Loss of World Forest
From Nine to Noon, 17 October, interview with Katherine Ryan
The Global economy is losing far more by the destruction of
forests than by the current financial collapse, according to an EU
Commission. Finance losses are said to be $US 1.5 but the
present annual cost of deforestation is $US 2.5trillion.
The Interim Report ordered by the G Eight + Five at Potsdam in
2007 calculates the net loss from cutting down forest , considering
food, water and carbon sequestration. The most aggressive rate
makes the cost $US2 trillion, a more ethical calculation shows a cost
of $US 4.5 trillion. Pervan Sukhar emphasizes the loss is
permanent. The report has computed only eight of eighteen
ecosystem and bio- diversity values but their replacement cost is
enormous. The poor in once- forested regions of India lose
60-70% of their income and must migrate to cities as economic refugees.
This is not being treated as news as the losses are “public
goods” and everybody’s property or business is deemed
to be nobody’s business. However welfare costs on this
scale are no better or worse than bank or individual losses.
Also, if annual carbon emission from deforestation continues at the
present rate of 20%, Kyoto levies will cost 6.5% of global GPD.
Like the Stern Report, this report will wake up world government when
in eighteen months it produces complete computation of the price of
losing coral reefs, with possible cures for Alzheimer’s disease
and cancer, of mangroves which nurture fish and mitigate tsunamis, and
on the general condition of the oceans, in which plankton work miracles
including storing much of the worlds carbon in their calcified remains.
“People did not get the joke,” said Pavan Sukhdev until
Lord Stern explained the Carbon problem to us but the EU is now taking
it seriously. People are now listening more attentively and
noticing a multitude of local effects. There are plenty of cures
but they need scaling-up and much finance which may come from carbon
trading and bio-banking.
Katherine Ryan concluded, “We do not value what is free.”
(From Julie Ryan, Lower North branch)
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