Farm Forestry New ZealandNewsletter 56, September 2011
Newsletter 56, September 2011
Newsletter archive New Zealand Farm Forestry Association |
NZFFA P.O. Box 1122 Wellington www.nzffa.org.nz
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| September 2011 No. 56 | ||||
ETS Applications: Deadlines for pre-1990 forests Editorial Additional Mãori Name for NZFFA Seminar on reorganising New Zealand forestry FSC certification Conference 2012
President John Dermer dermer@farmside.co.nz Vice President Ian Jackson ijacko@xtra.co.nz -Ashburton -South Canterbury -North Otago -Sthn High Country (north) Newsletter editor Dean Satchell dsatch@gmail.com National Executive Angus Gordon angusg@xtra.co.nz -Waitomo -Waikato -Taupo & Districts -Middle Districts -Taranaki -Hawkes Bay Neil Cullen cullen@farmside.co.nz -Mid Otago -South Otago -Southland -Men of Trees -Sthn High Country (south) Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz -Bay of Plenty -Gisborne East Coast -Wairarapa -Wellington Dean Satchell dsatch@gmail.com -Far North -Mid North -Lower North -South Auckland  Advertisement Providing forest carbon consulting services to pre 1990 and post 1989 forest land owners We can help you with
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Notices New Premises for NZFFA National Office Along with the other forestry organisations with whom we share a suite of offices, NZFFA has moved two buildings along The Terrace (85 to 93) in Wellington and up 5 floors (4th to the 9th). Telephone number, fax, email and postal address remain as before. The reason for the move was to provide extra office space to enable more organisations to be accommodated in the complex. The 9th Floor of 93 The Terrace has now been designated “Forestwood Centre”. Besides NZFFA, the other organisations based there are the NZ Forest Owners’ Association, the Wood Processors Association of NZ, Woodco (Wood Council of NZ) and NZ Wood (in the person of recently appointed CEO Jane Arnott). The administrative services for the NZ Institute of Forestry are also based at the new centre. Reminder about 1 November Deadline for Award Nominations, Remits for Conference and Changes to Branch Levies: Husqvarna Farm Foresters of the Year Nominations (North Island and South Island) Nomination forms may be requested from National Office or are available on the NZFFA website www.nzffa.co.nz Please ensure your nominees are going to attend the next Conference because winners must be present to receive their award. Winners from each island receive a Husqvarna chainsaw, a framed certificate and custody for a year of the engraved plaque. Judging criteria are:
NZ Landcare Trust Award for Innovation in Sustainable Farm Forestry Nomination forms may be requested from National Office or are available on the NZFFA website www.nzffa.co.nz The award is a $2,000 prize and is judged by NZFFA but presented by the NZ Landcare Trust. Preferably the presentation is made at our conference. A joint NZFFA/NZ Landcare Trust field day is held on the winner’s property. The main criteria for the Award are: Innovation, Quality of Work, Communication, and Planning for Sustainable Farm Forestry. The emphasis is definitely on innovation and sustainability and a spark of less usual achievement. Michael Hay Memorial Award Nomination forms may be requested from National Office or are available on the NZFFA website www.nzffa.co.nz This award is made in memory of the late Michael Hay with the objective of encouraging a younger NZFFA member who is actively planting trees. It is judged by a special committee and initial assessment is on a desk-top basis. The winner is announced at the NZFFA Conference although the winner does not have to be present. Prize is $5,000 to be devoted towards tree planting and establishment. Remits for Conference Formal remits for Conference must be submitted by 1 November so that they can be considered by the National Executive at its November meeting. The National Executive may decide the remit can be put into effect without waiting for Conference. Notices of Motion can still be proposed for Conference at a later date so long as there is time to give 42 days notice. Changes to Branch Levies As subscription renewal notices are generated in November, we need to receive requests from branches for changes to their branch levies before then. Matters Considered at Annual Meetings Most branches hold Annual Meetings in February. This is too late to propose remits or award nominations for the ensuing conference in March/April. However, it is the appropriate time for branches to consider award nominations and remits, and these can then be communicated to National Office by the 1 November deadline for the next conference. The time between November and the conference allows the award judges to undertake judging rounds in an organised fashion which keeps expenses to a minimum, whilst also doing justice to the nominees. ETS Applications: Deadlines for pre-1990 forests If you have land that was planted in forest pre-1990 the deadlines are:
If 2.0 Ha or more of Pre 1990 trees have been deforested since the 1st January 2008 and are not replanted you have effected or inherited a ‘land use’ change. Some time in the future you or the landowner at the time of discovery will have to pay a deforestation liability. If for some reason this deforestation is not advised to MAF voluntarily, the default will be discovered by MAF and the units will need to be surrendered... Plus a “not surrendered on time” fine of $30 per unit could be added to the bill. Let’s do the maths…. 800 NZU (to be purchased and surrendered) X $20(purchase) + $30 (Fine) = 800 NZU X $50 = $40,000/Ha A potential cost of more than $40,000/Ha dependant on the cost of Carbon credits at the time. If you have deforested land You have less than three weeks to apply for an exemption to hopefully avoid the CONSEQUENCES! Stuart Orme of Woodnet believes the logic is simple. "Ask the question - what is my best land use? If it is in growing vegetation vs. trying to farm, then claim the compensation (or Post 1989 annual) credits … if however the Pre 1990 trees were planted on land that now has a better use or has been DEFORESTED SINCE 1St January 2008, then CLAIM THE EXEMPTION that will allow you to avoid the inevitable penalty." Read Stuarts article about the Cost of doing Nothing! Further information is also available on the MAF website Editorial Restructuring MAF: Viewpoint by Hamish Levack The current restructuring of MAF is disturbing. A large number of qualified forestry staff are on the list of 140 redundancies. The CEO and top tier of directors have been appointed but none of them have forestry qualifications. My understanding is that the decision to merge MAF with Fisheries was proposed by the State Services Commission and Treasury alone, and then approved by Cabinet, and was driven solely by the idea that such a merger would save administration costs. MAF’s current CEO, was not involved in the decision, nor was opinion sought from any forestry stakeholder, such as Woodco, NZFOA, NZFFA, or NZIF. Nobody seems to have considered the following points: It is a quarter of a century now since forestry governance was unnaturally split into what MAF does and what DOC does. The impetus for that division came from an over-reaction to F&B images of the NZFS converting beech forest to radiata pine using jellied petrol in the 1970s, but apart from a populist gain in votes, the split was an irrational decision because both indigenous and plantation forests provide, (a) the conservation of soil, water and biodiversity, (b) amenity and recreation benefits, and (c) potentially sustainable supplies of timber. The sensible thing to do would be to keep enough of Government’s forestry roles in one integrated entity, so that a forestry can maintain a strong voice, as is done by most other countries in the world. It is absurd that MAF emphasizes sustainable management in its statement of intent, but that DOC does not. It is equally incomprehensible that DOC has an advocacy role but MAF does not. Recently, I asked a MAF director why MAF had the stated intentions of increasing the removal of carbon from the atmosphere, with schemes like the PFSI, ETS, AGS, and the ECF project, but it had no afforestation targets. He said MAF could not suggest targets, because it did not have an advocacy role! Is this reasonable? Shouldn’t MAF, for example, be advising Government what minimum new planting rates are needed, region by region, to convert the looming harvesting spikes of the 2020s into sustainable yields, not only for the environmental, but also for the social and economic benefits that would result? I am told that the organizational structure for the new MAF will remain "issue", and not "sector", based. This will be a continuing irrationality. DOC, MFE and MED are more involved in matters that affect forestry than the only Government agency that has forestry in its name. (top) Additional Mãori Name for NZFFA The NZFFA National Executive is inviting participation in selection of an additional Mãori name for our association to follow the lead of many kindred organisations and to reflect the dual cultural heritage of NZ. Please get comment on these from your own local iwi. Further suggestions are welcome at this stage, but after November we will be looking to narrow down the candidate names to a few front-runners, possibly even to just one, to recommend for adoption at the Balclutha Conference in April 2012. So far we have:
i.
“Cloaking” did not
convey the appropriate image, rather farm forestry is “interweaving”
trees with other land uses; and
ii. NZFFA National Executive (who proposed the motion) had not consulted enough. Bruce Bulloch (top) International Year of Forests Seminar on reorganising New Zealand forestry at Parliament Buildings, Wellington on 30 September 2011 This seminar will discuss how the anticipated harvesting spike in the 2020's could be converted into a sustainable yield and will be held at Parliament in Wellington on 30 September. It will be opened by the Hon Peter Dunne, Minister of Revenue and the French ambassador, Monsieur Francis Etienne. The President of Europe’s Forest Owners’ Union, Inazio Martinez de Arano, will give a keynote address on how forest cooperatives work in his part of the world. A contingent of 20 French forest proprietors will also be participating. Each of them owns his/her own woodlot within the forest of Lands in Aquitaine, which is three times as big as Kaingaroa, and each of them is a member of the cooperative that manages the aggregated forest. Dr Chris Goulding will also make a presentation about forestry cooperatives in Scandinavia. Influential speakers, not already mentioned, will include Doug Ducker, (Chairman of Woodco & managing director of Pan Pac Forest Products, Peter Berg (President of NZFOA), David Rhodes (CEO of NZFOA), Geoff Thompson (ETS Review panel member, and ex-National Party President ), Dr Warren Parker (CEO Scion), Don Wallace (Chairman Wellington Branch, NZFFA), Howard Moore (CEO Reforest Trust), Geoff Copps (Manager, Grow Wellington), Ian Cossar, (Director Sector Development, MAF), and Dr Andrew McEwen (President NZIF). Jean-Michel Carnus, Tim Payn, Jenny Aitken and Alain Rival will make presentations on relevant current international scientific collaboration. If you are interested in taking part contact Vince Kerr, info@forme.co.nz or phone 04 232 7155. If you want to find out more details go to www.nzffa.org.nz or contact Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz phone 04 476 6787. There will be a $55 registration fee for NZFFA/NZIF members [$95 for others] to cover lunch and coffee. Register early as space may be limited. Hamish Levack. (top) FSC certification- an opportunity for The NZFFA Currently the most popular method of environmental certification of NZ forests is through FSC with 60% of the forest estate now certified. Environmental certification has not been widely adopted by the Small Forest Grower as it is prohibitively expensive and excessively complicated. With SFF funding the NZFFA has initiated a project in an attempt to address both these issues through the development and implementation of an easily accessible FSC Group Certification Scheme. Group Schemes are promoted by FSC for Small Forest Growers, those with less than 1000ha, through the use of a SLIMF Standard (Small Low Intensity Managed Forests Standard). Over the last eighteen months New Zealand has developed its own SLIMF Standard which has been incorporated into the new Draft NZ National Plantation Standard. The latter is now with FSC International for ratification. An opportunity now exists for The NZFFA to develop a Group Certification Scheme for its members based on the SLIMF component of the new NZ National Plantation Standard. The development of a low cost, easily understood and practical FSC Group Certification Scheme will ensure NZFFA members have both the opportunity to certify their forests and as a result access key export and domestic markets where certified timber is required. This project is now underway, having started at the end of July and we are planning to demonstrate and discuss progress at next year’s conference in Balclutha. As the project develops, we’ll look to keep everyone informed via the web site. Patrick Milne (top) Conference 2012 The organising committee is in the process of finalising the costs for next year’s conference. The details and registration form will be delivered with the November Tree Grower. The conference will be based at Telford campus which is now a division of Lincoln University and is located 7km south of Balclutha. Participants arriving by air can be met and transported to Telford where there is accommodation for more than 100 people. Photos of Telford and the rooms can be viewed on the association website www.nzffa.org.nz on the conference page. Other options for accommodation will be motels in Balclutha and Kaka Point. For any enquiries in this regard contact Sheila Paterson 034190326 Monday to Thursday, email sheila.paterson@telford.ac.nz . The format for the conference follows those of recent years with meetings on the opening day concluding with the opening dinner at Telford. The second day includes special interest group meetings, the AGM, a tour of Telford farm, a mystery bus trip and the awards dinner at the Town and Country Club in Balclutha. The three days of field trips cover much of South and Mid Otago and include visits to a farm near Lake Mahinerangi, the Waihola/Waipori wetlands, a Landcare Award winning farm at Hillend, historic Lawrence township, Cullens farm at Glenomaru and the Stephens Cypress Trial block. A preview of the programme for the 2012 conference is also available on the website. (top)
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