Farm Forestry New ZealandFebruary, 2019
Awareness and perceptions of the forest growers commodity levy
The New Zealand Forest Owners Association (FOA), the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association (FFA), and the Forest Growers Levy Trust (FGLT) have commissioned research to help them understand the awareness and perceptions of a commodity levy, currently paid by commercial forest growers on plantation timber forests.
The FOA and the FFA represent the owners of New Zealand’s 1.7 million hectares of commercial plantation forests and the FGLT manages the proceeds of the levy.
In 2019 a referendum will be conducted among forest owners on the collection and amount of the levy.
FOA, FFA and FGLT have established a Steering Group Levy Awareness Project (SGLAP) to assist with developing and measuring the success of a communications plan around the referendum and the levy.
This document outlines the results from two research surveys.
- An initial survey in September 2018, designed to provide a pre-communications snapshot of awareness and perceptions of the levy.
- A second survey in November 2018 after SGLAP have undertaken proposed promotional activity to gauge the success of the communications and determine how accurate understanding of the levy is.
Key insights
Awareness of the levy has increased significantly from September to November.
There is also significant increase in the number of forest owners who are confident enough to vote.
Positive perceptions of the levy are associated with increased confidence in being able to vote.
The majority of forest owners are positive about the levy and see the benefits for the industry.
One third of forest owners who are aware of the levy don’t have the confidence to vote. Comments suggest this is driven by a lack of knowledge about how the funds are utilised.
Download the final report here »
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