Farm Forestry New Zealand
The New Zealand Farm Forestry Association partnered with the Forest Owners Association to introduce a Forest Growers levy. From January 2014 an industry levy has been imposed on all harvested wood from New Zealand plantation forests. Currently set at 33c per tonne the levy collects around $10 million a year, which is administered by a Trust and invested in areas of research, development and promotion to further advance NZ forestry both here and overseas. The Trust website is http://www.fglt.org.nz/
Forest Growers levy
Forest growers Levy trust Board elections 2021
PLEASE VOTE!
LEVY TRUST BOARD ELECTIONS ON NOW
FOUR CANDIDATES – TWO POSITIONS
Voting closes at 5 pm 22 October 2021. Vote now!
Why vote?
We want to improve our engagement with the Levy Board and get better outcomes for all small-scale forest owners. To do that we need to show that we are voting and taking an interest in the process.
The Forest Growers Levy has provided funding for many activities. For example:
- It invests in things like biosecurity, safety, transport and training.
- It funds research and supports projects that require investment over a number of years like Speciality Wood Products.
- It has funded various projects initiated by members that are useful to all small growers, like the forest owners’ address list, TreeFarmer and harvesting equipment studies.
- It has helped the NZFFA do lots more as an organisation. We have members on many of the levy committees, putting the small growers’ point of view.
- It has funded various promotional activities, papers in the Tree Grower, communications and the maintenance and development of the NZFFA web site.
- It has sponsored our annual conference several times.
We can do even better, but for that to happen we need capable representation.
How Do I Vote?
Voting opened on 11 October and will close at 5 pm 22 October.
On-line voting is available here surveys.researchnz.com and is also available be via the vote.forestvoice.org.nz website.
A postal voting form can be requested from Research NZ here: vote.forestvoice.org.nz/contact.htm
Who Can Vote?
Anyone who will potentially pay the levy over 2020 – 2025 is entitled to vote. Although firewood and Christmas trees don’t count, if you have a stand of trees of 4 ha or more planted before 1 October 2009, you are eligible. Small-scale forest owners may vote for their representatives; large-scale owners may vote for theirs.
There is one vote per forest owner regardless of the form of ownership or the number of forests you own. Forest owners not be liable to pay the levy may not vote.
Who is Standing?
Bert Hughes, Ian Jackson, Graham West and Glenn Williams are standing as nominees for forests of less than 1000 ha.
Details of each candidate:
You can vote for any two of these four. The NZFFA executive preference is for Bert Hughes and Graham West.
The FGLT Board
The Board consists of four representatives of forests more than 1000 ha, and two representatives of forests smaller than 1000 ha, and an independent chosen by the Board. For more detail, use this link: https://fglt.org.nz/about-us/board
Reason for Election
The rules say an election is to be held in 2021 when half the elected board members automatically retire. Then one member for small-scale forest owners, and two for large-scale forest owners shall come up for re-election. In addition, Steve Wilton has resigned creating another vacancy so this election is for:
- two representatives of more than 1000 ha and
- two representatives of less than 1000 ha.
Question and answers are at http://vote.forestvoice.org.nz/qna.htm
If you can vote, please do so. We want to show the Board that small-scale forest owners are an important part of the industry.
Latest levy rate
The purpose of the FGLT is largely to help advance the New Zealand plantation forestry industry both domestically and internationally.
The current levy rate is 33c per tonne of harvested wood for the 2021 year. “Harvested wood” means logs, posts, poles, forest residues, binwood, hog fuel and woodchips produced in New Zealand and sourced from a plantation forest, either exotic or native. The levy does not apply to bark sold separately, Christmas trees or domestic firewood, or production from natural native forests.
Annual Work Programme
The 2021 Work Programme was approved by the FGLT Board in December 2020. Each quarter of 2021, an update on progress is summarised as a regular update to levy payers.
The annual work programme covers a broad range of industry good activities and these reports assume familiarity with the projects within the annual work programme. Please refer to the work programme document for a full description of each project, as the quarterly updates are intended as a snapshot of progress.
The quarterly reports are broken down into financials and then activity under three broad headings – operational, administraton and the levy funding work programme, with projects by committee in the second document.
QUARTERLY REPORTS - 2021
31 March 2021 (Financial) (.pdf 816KB) and (By Committee) (.pdf 315KB)
Copies of the annual work programme for earlier years are available on the FGLT website.
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