Deforestation in New Zealand has been a contentious environmental issue in the past, but native forests (colloquially called "the bush") now have legal protection, and are not allowed to be tampered with by humans.
Deforestation in New Zealand has been a contentious environmental issue in the past, but native forests (colloquially called "the bush") now have legal protection, and are not allowed to be tampered with by humans.
Since New Zealand was the last major landmass to be settled by humans, anthropological changes are easier to study than in countries with a longer human history. A picture of the vegetation cover has been built up through the use of archeological and fossil remains, especially pollen grains from old forests. [1] Intact forests are found on Stewart Island and Ulva Island, but during the Pleistocene these areas would have been covered in grass and shrubland. During the last glacial maximum podocarp, broadleaf and beech forest grew in the far north of New Zealand. [2]
Prior to Māori arrival, New Zealand was almost entirely forested, besides high alpine regions and those areas affected by volcanic activity. Māori began settling the country about 1000 years ago [3] and by 1840, when Europeans were a small part of the total population, the forest cover was significantly reduced from 85% down to 53%. [4] [5]
When the first Europeans arrived, in 1769, there was still thick, dense forest cover. Early explorers such as Cook and Banks described the land as "immense woods, lofty trees and the finest timber". [6] Timber was mainly used for repairs to sailing ships until the 19th century. With the colony of New South Wales rapidly expanding in population, the need for timber from New Zealand began to rise. Timber exports, mainly kauri, became a major industry for New Zealand. There are records from the 1840s stating that 50 to 100 ships could be tied to shore in Kaipara Harbour and be filled with lumber from giant floating booms that could hold 10,000 logs at a time. [7] Besides as a form of lumber, many pioneers found the kauri trees valuable for the gum they produced to make varnish and linoleum, primarily in the north island near Auckland. The colonists used unconventional methods to gather this gum from living trees. Stripping these trees and the ground around them resulted in the destruction of the land, rendering it unusable for agriculture (Wynn pg. 108). Without the trees to hold the soil and debris to the land, water flowed freely, causing frequent and regular flooding. As most of New Zealand was covered with thick bush, the slash-and-burn technique was often used to prepare land wanted for farming in forested areas. This practice was not carried out very responsibly due to the complexity of controlling a fire, and unintentionally resulted in large areas of land catching fire. [6] Thousands of acres were accidentally burned and destroyed.
After the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, settlers begin a rapid expansion. Deforestation continued for many uses, including clearing land for farming and gardens and wood for construction. An estimated 50,000 acres (200 km2) of land was also lost due to human-caused forest fires within only a few days. Settlers were often granted land, such as the Homesteads, with a condition that they forfeited it if they didn't clear enough bush. [8]
The rising rate of deforestation can be correlated with a sudden rise in sawmill usage. There were only six sawmills in 1843, twelve in 1847, fifteen in 1855 and ninety-three in 1868, a growth of more than fifteen times in twenty-five years. [6] Many saw-milling settlements were in turn supported by becoming railroad stops, leading to more clearance and job availability. With time, the mills also became more productive. These factors helped create an exponential rate of deforestation across the country.
Although in 1885 the State Forest Department set aside forests to protect timber resources, for 100 years New Zealand farmers were paid incentives or provided with subsidies to clear land of trees or "improve" land for agriculture. [9] Half of New Zealand is now converted to agricultural land, [10] for example most of the river flats of the west coast are now pastures. [11] Removing forests contributed to the extinction of endemic species. [12] By removing New Zealand native forest, humans created a landscape with the climatic conditions to allow the short-horned grasshopper Phaulacridium marginale to expand its range across the country. [13]
By the 1970s the environmental movement started direct action to protect New Zealand's forests. Notable direct action campaigns were at Pureora Forest with Stephen King and the West Coast with the Native Forest Action Council and Native Forest Action. All native forest logging on public land ended in 2002 when the Labour-led government upheld its election promise to stop the logging.
In 2005 forestry covered over 80,000 km2 (31,000 sq mi), or 29% of the country, made up of 63,000 km2 (24,000 sq mi) of native forest and 17,000 km2 (6,600 sq mi) of planted forests. That Stats NZ estimate was made up of areas over 0.5 ha (1.2 acres) with at least 10% crown cover and a potential minimum height of 5 m (16 ft) at maturity. [14]
Other measurements vary, so that one 2010 estimate, based on MPI figures, put native forest at 65,000 km2 (25,000 sq mi) (24%) and total tree cover at 30%, [15] but another that same year said 31.40% of New Zealand was covered by forest. This does not include orchards or trees in parks. This figure has been slowly but steadily rising since 1998.[ citation needed ] By 2018 the estimated planted area had risen to 17,300 km2 (6,700 sq mi). [16]
Many legal avenues now exist to protect New Zealand's native forests. The Resource Management Act, a major Act of Parliament that was passed in 1991, affords any natural environment a level of legal protection through the resource consent process. The logging of native trees is governed by a permit system administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and must be shown to be sustainable. [17] The number of sawmills registered for cutting native trees dropped from 672 in 1959, [18] to 652 in 1984 [19] and in 2024 there were around 150 Sustainable Forest Management permits. [20]
MPI also formulates policy on national and international illegal logging. [21]
In 2014 special legislation was passed to allow the extraction of large numbers of rimu trees which had toppled in a storm in the South Island. [22] In early periods, rimu was the timber widely used in construction. After 1950, it was replaced with treated exotic Pinus radiata , but small amounts were milled for furniture into the 1990s.
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used narrowly to describe the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage, however, the term may cover a range of forestry or silviculture activities.
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service is the agency within the Ministry for Primary Industries that is responsible for the New Zealand forestry sector. It is headquartered in Rotorua.
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a protected area; the cutting down of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.
Tangiwai is a 2,696.66 km2 (1,041.19 sq mi) census area and a small rural community in the Ruapehu District of the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located east of Ohakune and Rangataua and west of Waiouru on State Highway 49. In 2018 37.5% of the area's 1,281 residents worked in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 7.1% in manufacturing.
Raetihi, a small town in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, is located at the junction of State Highways 4 and 49 in the Manawatū-Whanganui region. It lies in a valley between Tongariro and Whanganui National Parks, 11 kilometres west of Ohakune's ski fields.
Articles on forestry topics include:.
Mamaku is a small village in the Bay of Plenty Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It lies on the Mamaku Plateau at an elevation of 560 metres (1,840 ft) above sea level. Situated at the highest point of the now-mothballed Rotorua Branch railway line, the town is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of State Highway 5.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and guide to forestry:
Deforestation in Cambodia has increased in recent years. Cambodia is one of the world's most forest endowed countries, that was not historically widely deforested. However, massive deforestation for economic development threatens its forests and ecosystems. As of 2015, the country has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.
Forestry in India is a significant rural industry and a major environmental resource. India is one of the ten most forest-rich countries of the world. Together, India and 9 other countries account for 67 percent of the total forest area of the world. India's forest cover grew at 0.20% annually over 1990–2000, and has grown at the rate of 0.7% per year over 2000–2010, after decades where forest degradation was a matter of serious concern.
The extensive and rapid clearing of forests (deforestation) within the borders of Nigeria has significant impacts on both local and global scales.
The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km2, is the world's largest rainforest. It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests. The Amazon region includes the territories of nine nations, with Brazil containing the majority (60%), followed by Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and smaller portions in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
Rates and causes of deforestation vary from region to region around the world. In 2009, two-thirds of the world's forests were located in just 10 countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, China, Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, India, and Peru.
Forestry in New Zealand has a history starting with European settlement in the 19th century and is now an industry worth seven percent of annual revenue. Much of the original native forest cover was burnt off and logged, however forests have been extensively planted, predominantly with fast-growing cultivars of the Monterey Pine. Wood chips, whole logs, lumber and paper products are exported from New Zealand.
Deforestation in Borneo has taken place on an industrial scale since the 1960s. Borneo, the third largest island in the world, divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, was once covered by dense tropical and subtropical rainforests.
Deforestation in Papua New Guinea has been extensive and in recent decades from 2001 to 2020, Papua New Guinea (PNG) lost 1.57Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 3.7% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 1.15Gt of CO₂e emissions.
The Timber Trail, originally known as the Central North Island Rail Trail or Pureora Timber Trail, in the North Island of New Zealand is an 84-kilometre (52 mi) cycleway in Pureora Forest Park, fully opened in 2013, with 35 bridges, including eight large suspension bridges. It is one of several cycleways developed as part of the New Zealand Cycle Trail and passes through some of the last remaining podocarp forests of rimu, tōtara, miro, mataī and kahikatea, as well as some exotic forestry and regenerating bush. About half the trail is on the track-bed of the old Ellis and Burnand Tramway, including a spiral and tunnel.
Deforestation in Myanmar led to a reduction in forest cover from 70% of the country in 1948 to 48% by 2014. Myanmar possesses the largest expanse of tropical forest in mainland Southeast Asia, which contains high biodiversity. As of 2010, Myanmar's living forest biomass held 1,654 million metric tons of carbon and over 80 endemic species.
The wood industry or timber industry is the industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and wood products and secondary products like wood pulp for the pulp and paper industry. Some of the largest producers are also among the biggest owners of forest. The wood industry has historically been and continues to be an important sector in many economies.
Ellis and Burnand was a New Zealand sawmilling and timber retailing company, formed by businessman John William Ellis and engineer Harry Burnand in 1891.
