Conservation and economics in the Buller forests

Forest and Bird, Volume 14, Issue 3, 1 August 1982, Page 9

Conservation and economics in the Buller forests

By

Guy Salmon

AFTER a long period of neglect the conservation importance of the Buller region has quite suddenly come into focus. The National Parks and Reserves Authority decided in May to commission a study for a possible national park in the Paparoas. The Wildlife Service has published a report calling for the preservation of large areas of forests in the region, and independent scientists have submitted recommendations for reserves.

CONSERVATION _ organisations have given momentum to these initiatives; and there has been a rapid growth of conservation awareness and activity in the Buller region itself after the formation of a joint NFAC-Forest and Bird group there last year. No less than 76 percent of the Buller County is forest land controlled by the Forest Service. In theory the extensive public ownership of land in the region should offer scope for the preservation of important natural areas and for making wise use of other resources on these lands. However, the Forest Service in its recently published draft regional management plan has chosen to emphasise socio-economic priorities, which it claims are embedded in Government policy. Economic and social factors will indeed play a major role in decisions regarding the future of natural resources in the Buller, which has in past years been seen as a depressed area. Conservationists need to be aware of the relevant economic facts and consider just how far these can justify the type of use of the region’s forests advocated by the Forest Service. Management plan The recently published draft management plan for the Buller forests has provoked strong public concern for a number of reasons:

e The plan opposes the creation of a Paparoa National Park. e The ecological reserves put forward in the plan compare most unfavourably with those recommended by the Wildlife Service and by independent scientists. e The principal basis for the plan is the intention to maintain the existing timber industry by cutting through almost all the remaining podocarp-rich forest in the short term and by converting areas of native forest to exotic plantations for longterm timber supplies. e The plan condones the wasteful and destructive logging and utilisation practices current in the Buller timber industry. e In these and many other respects the plan does not comply with the letter or the spirit of the Government’s

Indigenous Forest Policy, adopted in 1976. The Society, with other conservation and recreation organisations acting through the Joint Campaign on Native Forests, is seeking two fundamental changes to the Forest Service plan. First, we are seeking the complete preservation of important natural areas in the Paparoas and north Buller areas which are substantially zoned for timber production at present. Second, we are calling for an end to the wasteful exploitation of the forests, asking instead for the introduction of proper sustained yield management for those forests where timber production is acceptable. If these desirable measures are to be implemented, they must inevitably cause a substantial reduction in the rate at which native trees are being felled in Buller County. Any reduction in the cut will have an effect on employment. If no compensatory measures are taken, such a reduction could also have an adverse effect on the viability of small rural communities in the Buller. I believe it is important that conservationists have a clear understanding of the socioeconomic effects of measures they propose. Wherever possible, balanced proposals should be advanced for making better use of regional or national resources to provide compen-

The author Guy Salmon is director of the Joint Campaign on Native Forests, which represents the Forest and Bird Protection Society, NFAC, Federated Mountain Clubs, and ECO.

sating opportunities for employment and long-term community viability. If this integrated approach is used, conservationist proposals are likely to accord with the aspirations of most New Zealanders. Recent experience with the Okarito and Pureora issues suggest that when conservationists can reach agreement on an _ appropriately balanced package, and communicate it effectively, we can be rewarded with political success.

Regional economy From the beginning the Buller has had a boom-and-bust economy based on exploiting its natural resources of gold, timber, and coal just as fast as they could be extracted and sold. This resource rip-off philosophy is_ still current in the region, though much of the romance went out of it during the 20-year drop in coal prices and output that resulted in the Buller’s population dwindling from 10 500 in 1951 to 8500 today.

The result is that many thoughtful Buller residents are looking towards more sustainable sources of economic wellbeing for the future. And a renewable industry — agriculture — has now grown to become the district’s biggest employer. The timber industry has been declining for a long time through the progressive destruction of its resource base. Karamea’s kahikatea forests were felled — almost to the last tree — and exported direct to Australia before 1930. The mills then concentrated on the forests rich in rimu. Throughout more than a century of intensive exploitation of the Buller forests not a tree was planted for the future. Today there are four sawmills left, three of them very old, and two small processing enterprises. There is also a small work force engaged in road building, tree felling, and pine planting. Total employment in the Buller forest sector today is 96, which represents less than 4 percent of the region’s jobs. Dependence on forestry in the Buller is therefore much less than in the rest of the West Coast, where forestry supports about 20 percent of the population. The Buller’s primary sources of prosperity, in order of importance, are agriculture (especially dairying), coal mining, and the cement industry. All three are undergoing substantial expansion of capacity and output. The fishing, tourism, clothing, and plastics industries are also significant sources of regional income. Servicing activities, especially the transport sector, are, of course, major employers in the district as well. Growth opportunities Where does the main growth potential lie? Coal’s potential is attracting much attention,

with the recent growth in production based on a modest export trade. The Government is considering proposals to expand the level of coal exports dramatically, based on direct loading of ships at Westport or Ngakawau. However, such a_ policy would drastically shorten the lifetime of the coal resource, starting another cycle of boom and bust. It may leave little lasting benefit behind in the Buller — just another hole in the hill and some _ rusting machinery. . Agriculture offers more sustainable long-term benefits to the region. Dairying is well established, with a dairy factory at Karamea, and there Is immense scope for bringing more land into production. The Department of Lands and Survey has a major land development programme in progress in the Buller. Its Cape Foulwind development will release 38 new dairy farms near Westport over the next decade, which will support a regional population boost of almost 1000 people. But this is only the beginning. Without the felling of any more native forest, or the draining of wetlands valuable for wildlife, the area under productive pasture in the Buller could be doubled. This conclusion comes from = an agricultural potential survey of the Buller prepared for the Joint Campaign. The survey report estimates that this development would allow total stock units in the region to increase from the present 165 000 to 380 000. In addition, the report says that improved grazing management and fertiliser use on existing pastures could increase production from them by 50 to 70 percent. Significant areas of the Buller are suited by soil and climate to intensive horticul-

ture, with kiwifruit at Karamea showing the greatest promise. Kiwifruit from Karamea_ orchards were the largest handled at the Nelson packing-house this season. Kiwifruit growing yields gross margins of up to $30,000 per hectare, compared with $360 per hectare for dairying locally. Capital costs are high and kiwifruit returns may ease back in future years, but kiwifruit orchards are now almost certain to expand on to sultable sites in the Buller. If, where suitable, 5 percent of the existing pasture was planted in kiwifruit, regional income could be boosted by almost $30 million and employment opportunities could grow by more than 700. Forests for growth? Exotic forests can contribute to the Buller’s prosperity as well, according to the Forest Service, which aims at planting 3900 ha in exotic trees, mainly by converting or interplanting existing native forest. The cost of the plantations will be at least $14 million, and, unlike the Department of Lands and Survey’s development of 38 dairy farms at Cape Foulwind (for $11.5 million), the plantations do not stand on their own feet as a commercial proposition in the national

interest. Rather, the Forest Service justifies its expenditure on the exotic plantations on social grounds — a desire to maintain all of the 96 jobs in the local forest industry on a permanent basis. In the department’s Westland Conservancy, where ‘‘production forestry’’ accounts for 9S percent of all departmental expenditure, the excess of expenditure over income in 1981 was $7.9 million, the deficit amounting to almost 80 percent of total expenditure. Substantial costs of in-

digenous logging operations, including permanent roads and bridges, are not charged against revenue from timber sales, but, like exotic plantation costs, are added to the production forestry deficit. The department’s accounts do not disclose how much of this expenditure could be justified by normal investment criteria, and how much is best viewed as regional aid, administered through the timber industry by a department which has traditionally played a fairy godmother role to the West Coast’s timber towns. Could this large amount of money be put to better use from regional and national points of view? The Forest Service management plan is certainly not the only way — nor, it may be, the most economic way — to provide employment opportunities on the West Coast. The Government’s Indigenous Forest Policy requires the department to demonstrate that no suitable land is available for planting in the region before native forest is clear-felled to make way for exotic plantations. The policy has not been complied with in the Buller. Conservation organisations have identified almost 26 000 ha of non-forested land suitable for exotic forestry in the Buller region, and only a small proportion of this would be needed to meet the Forest Service planting target. But these lands have been disregarded in favour of the extraordinary choice of remote road-end sites for exotic afforestation deep in the north Buller native forests. This choice may be largely explained by the desire of Forest Service officials to secure funds for permanent maintenance of the long lengths of arterial logging roads which give access for on-

ward felling of rimu timber in the region. The wastage of beech In the Buller indigenous forests the major resource is beech, which has good qualities as a decorative and furniture timber, but is not wanted by Buller sawmillers. Rimu is their traditional fodder, as it is simple to saw and season and can be easily sold as roughsawn unprocessed lumber. Present milling practice, which has been tolerated for years by the Forest Service, means a destructive and wasteful exploitation of mixed beech-podocarp forest to extract only rimu. The associated beech trees are destroyed or mortally damaged by the logging process. The rimu logs taken are wastefully sawn and then sold with little or no processing. The Buller’s accessible beechpodocarp forest would be logged out in about 30 years under the strategy favoured by the timber industry and endorsed in the Forest Service management plan. At the end of that time, the sawmills would change to using the exotics now being planted. Under the alternative strategy proposed by conservation organisations larger reserves would be set aside and the rest of production forests would be conserved for use on a sustained-yield basis in perpetuity. The volume of timber produced would be small and it would be processed for specialist uses such as_ furniture. The potential value to the Buller of a small-scale, sustainable style of forestry is illustrated by a Karamea wood turner and furniture maker, Mr Mark Christensen. Sawn timber leaving the Karamea mills for $250 per cubic metre is converted in Mr Christensen’s workshop into beautiful fin-

ished products whose average value is $4,000 per cubic metre of wood used. The workshop is an eye-opener for people in the Buller because: e It adds considerable value to what has traditionally been a cheap resource — native wood. e The benefits are retained in the Buller. e The workshop uses beech — normally thrown away. e It wastes very little. It depends on a small, sustainable supply of wood. Conclusion The Forest Service’s draft management plan is open to question regarding its inadequate reserves, its endorsement of a short-term exploitative approach to the indigenous forests, and its proposals for exotic plantations. The draft plan justifies its adverse impact on the natural environment by appealing to socio-economic considerations. But the Buller region has a wide range of economic growth opportunities, particularly in the agriculture and horticulture sectors, and these appear to represent a better investment nationally than the proposals in the Forest Service plan. A conservation-oriented development package for the Buller is now being developed with three main elements: e Establishment of a national park and reserves. e Conservation of indigenous production forest for use on a sustained-yield basis in future. e Government investment in an agricultural and_horticultural development programme to build on the Buller region’s real economic strengths.