“We are also happy that East Coast Exchange and other market opportunities for biodiversity and regenerative agriculture have been included for support. We agree with the urgent need to remove pine plantations from the permanent forest category in the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme), particularly given no science exists to prove pine plantations can transition successfully to indigenous forest.
“The report confirms the forestry industry has lost its social licence and while there are some good recommendations, the devil will be in the detail of how they are interpreted.
“If there is not enough action taken to significantly reduce the footprint of pine plantations and pasture on erosion-prone land in the region, then we can expect to see more action than just petitions into the future.
“If politicians, officials and industry will not stop unsustainable practices, then they should expect the citizenry will, by any means necessary.”
“It is unfortunate the report seems to have been used in part as a way for some groups to attack Gisborne District Council about issues well outside the scope of the inquiry’s terms of reference,” Ms Ngata-Gibson said.
“Furthermore, members of our group have raised concerns and described parts of the report as an attempted grab for control.
“GDC do need their feet held to fire, but there are recommendations in the report that potentially give huge favour and power to select groups and individuals appointed by the Government. We don’t think that’s a good way forward. We would only support full participatory processes.
“The report seems to overlook the land use of pastoral farming almost entirely. That was supposed to be half the focus of the inquiry, given pasture makes up more than half of land use in the region and is a major contributor to sediment and erosion.
“It’s like they have sidestepped that problem and focused on other issues way outside the brief they were given.”
Line by line responses to the report recommendations are available on the Mana Taiao website www.manataio.org
Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti has also made public, via its website, a previously confidential cache of over 150 resource consents and consent monitoring reports for six forests that the council collated during its 2018 forestry investigation and disclosed to the court and defendants in those prosecutions.
The consents cover the six forests that were the subject of the successful prosecutions — Te Marunga, Paroa, Uawa, Wakaroa, Waituna and Makiri. The companies holding consents were Aratu Forests, Juken New Zealand, PF Olsen, DNS Forest Products and Ernslaw One.
Mana Taiao member Manu Caddie says the inquiry report unfairly targets Gisborne District Council, when the local authority has radically improved its own practices over the past six years.
“Responsibility for the rule setting in the forestry industry sits mostly with central government,” he said. “Responsibility for following the rules rests mostly with industry.
“The proposal to appoint a hearings commissioner to take the responsibility off council is nuts because it has little relevance to forestry. Forestry consents don’t go to hearings because they nearly all get approved under the permissive national rules that take precedence over local concerns and priorities.”
Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti is hosting a public event on Monday, May 22, to provide an opportunity for community responses to the inquiry report after all information, including submissions, held by the inquiry panel and secretariat is released this Friday.
