“For instance, we hear forest owners will not be compensated by the Government’s reconstruction package.
“Why isn’t this primary sector supported in the national interest as farming and horticulture is?
“Any recommendation from the inquiry, or a resulting regulation, might be insignificant for a larger company but it could create real difficulty for a woodlot owner.
“We want to see small-scale forestry expertise used in the solutions, particularly if it relates to tree species other than radiata pine,” Mr West said.
Latest figures from the National Exotic Forest Description show there are more than 30 thousand hectares of woodlot forests smaller than 50 hectares in Gisborne and Wairoa.
Mr West said there was likely to additionally be more than 4000 investors who had bought a direct stake in forests in the region.
“Local farmers have planted large areas of trees on their properties in Tairāwhiti. Numbers of ordinary New Zealanders have invested as well. Iwi have a huge forestry stake.”
Mr West also told delegates at the conference that journalists and commentators needed to educate themselves about the reality of 60 years of plantation forestry science in New Zealand.
“Rants in the news media endlessly repeat the same misinformation about pines, such as it is not a productive land use.
“The truth is that on hill country many forest plantation species, and not just pines, have about twice the biological production of pasture.
‘“Wood is now being used for thousands of products that substitute for unsustainable fossil-fuel consumption.
“Bioplastics, biofuel, heat energy, earthquake resilient structures are just a few. Wood is used in food as a filler and to add healthy fibre to products in many parts of the world.
“It doesn’t require fertiliser on most sites. It doesn’t leak nitrates and doesn’t need milking twice a day.
“Without intensive inputs plantation species continue to grow for at least 70 years and silently absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide.’
“Global heating from carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide is the real issue. The physics of gases reflecting the radiated heat back to earth has been known for more than 50 years.”
Mr West said the inquiry panel had been advised that plantation trees offered many functional solutions for land use problems in Tairāwhiti.
“With the right expertise, trees reduce water run-off, bind hill soils with their roots and create wealth. Trees are also the low-cost solution to our international emissions commitments and provide a proven medium-term solution.
“I suggest if we don’t act with some urgency the continual change in climate will reduce the economics of all primary production to the extent we will begin to have a real decline in New Zealand’s living standards.
“We rely on our beautiful temperate climate to generate wealth from primary production.
“Cyclones like Gabrielle were recently off the coast of Africa. One managed to regenerate itself seven times before it died out. New Zealand cannot afford that level of climate change.
“Biological sequestration of carbon dioxide through trees is currently the only technology we could deploy at scale to cool the planet.
“Our strategy should be to get us quickly to carbon zero or carbon negative. This may impact on our economy but so will doing nothing.”
Nearly 120 public submissions have been made to the ministerial inquiry into land use.
“There has been good attendance at community meetings and hui in the regions over the past three weeks, with up to 100 people from a cross-section of the community (residents, farmers, business owners and community leaders) attending public meetings — two in Gisborne and others involving Wairoa, Tokomaru Bay, Patutahi, Te Araroa, Ruatoria and Uawa,” inquiry chair Hekia Parata said.
The panel had appreciated the honest and helpful contributions from the community hui, with people openly sharing the impacts of the floods on their lives and wellbeing.
“In addition to open meetings in community halls and on marae, the panel has met with a wide range of organisations, local authorities and businesses affected by the floods.”
The inquiry will look at past and existing land use, storm damage and its causes, and the impact on communities and the environment across the Gisborne and Wairoa territorial boundaries in Te Tairāwhiti, Tūranganui-a-Kiwa and Te Wairoa.
A particular focus is on the woody debris and sedimentation surfaced by a series of weather events, including the most recent Cyclone Gabrielle.
Online submissions are due by April 6, and can be made at www.environment.govt.nz/MILU.
After the public meetings and receiving public submissions, the panel must provide its report and recommendations to the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Forestry by April 30.
