14 December 2015
Scope of work for forest owners grows
Funds raised by forest growers for research and other industry activities are expected to total $7,620,000 in 2015,
about $1 million more than budgeted. At the same time, administrative expenditure has been kept under tight control.
This will allow the Forest Growers Levy Trust in 2016 to keep the levy rate on harvested logs to 27c/tonne for the
second year in a row. It will also enable the Trust to expand the work it does for all growers, says chair Geoff
Thompson.
“We are looking at innovative ways to communicate new technology and best practice to growers, especially the owners of
smaller forests who may be unaware of the opportunities for increasing the profitability and environmental performance
of their plantations. The successful technology transfer workshops we pioneered in 2015 will now be expanded as part of
this initiative,” he says.
Other new initiatives planned for 2016 include an industry census, the promotion of careers in forestry, and a study of
the environmental effects of mechanical harvesting on steep hill country.
The census will be designed to capture the contribution forestry and wood processing makes to society, so that the value
of the sector is better understood by policymakers and the public at large.
“We can easily put an accurate figure on exports,” Mr Thompson says. “But forestry is much more than that. We don’t know
how many people are employed in the sector, how many people own forests, the area of forests planted for erosion
protection, the area of native wildlife habitat and so on.”
He says the Trust worked extremely well in 2015 and the commodity levy that funds its activities appears to have
widespread support among growers.
“We have repaid the costs associated with the levy referendum in 2013 and thanks to a robust log harvest in 2015, we now
hold sufficient reserves to meet our commitments to research and other providers through any unforeseen disruptions. It
also puts us in a position to fund activities that have levy payer support, but didn’t fit within our original budget.”
The core activities of the Trust are research, biosecurity, safety, transport, fire prevention, industry promotion and
advocacy.
Of these, research is by far the biggest ticket item, with a budget of $4,478,000. Mr Thompson says that research into
sustainable intensification of radiata forests – “growing more timber on the same area of land, without any harm to the
environment” – is the area of greatest focus.
“This, together with other production forest research projects covering weed and disease control, the use of beneficial
organisms and automated harvesting systems, are all designed to make forestry more profitable for levy payers and to
protect the industry’s social licence to operate,” he says.
The Forest Health Surveillance Scheme (FHSS) is a vital part of the industry’s biosecurity strategy, with a budget of
around $800,000. The scheme aims to detect new incursions before they can establish and cause significant damage, and to
provide assurances to trading partners that the industry knows what’s living in its forests.
“Since the levy was established in 2014 we have, on expert advice, revised the scheme. We now survey forests throughout
the country, rather than just those of FOA members, with an emphasis on areas of greatest risk. We have also better
integrated the scheme with MPI’s biosecurity monitoring.
“In 2016, we will be developing an incursion response capability, so we can play our part under the biosecurity
agreement we now have with the government – the GIA. This will include the development of models that will help us
understand the economic implications of an incursion and to do cost-benefit analyses of the various control options.”
The Forest Industry Safety Council, established in 2015, will continue to be co-funded by the Trust, ACC and Worksafe.
The Trust’s share of $575,000 means safety is seen as a major priority for levy funding, something Thompson says is
entirely appropriate.
“We have seen a dramatic drop in serious harm injuries in the last 18 months, in part because of the initiatives the
industry has put in place in that time. But we still have an obligation to ensure that everyone who works in our
industry returns home safely after work every day. The Council’s work will be key to us achieving the industry’s goal of
zero fatalities and zero serious harm injuries.”
The 2016 FGLT work programme can be viewed here: bit.ly/FGLT_Work2016
ends