A call for the creation of a level playing field for New Zealand’s forest owners has been made by United Future’s forestry spokesperson Gordon Copeland.
He said news that New Zealand’s January trade deficit was its worst since 1986 indicates it is time for the country to “get real” about import substitution.
Mr Copeland said NZ$284m was spent last year importing “special purpose timber”, little of which came from verifiable sustainable sources.
At the same time, he said, New Zealand’s own mills and markets have to meet high level sustainability criteria, and added: “This is a complete mismatch which does nothing for world conservation, utilises scarce overseas funds and makes much of our indigenous timber industry uneconomic.”
He called on government to act immediately on two fronts – firstly by banning the importation of timber unless it comes from a verifiable sustainable source, and secondly to adopt and promote the use of indigenous timber extracted on a verifiable and sustainable basis.
