Native Forests of New Zealand

Forest and Bird, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 February 1992, Page 46

Native Forests of New Zealand

Mark Bellingham

by John Halkett (GP Publications) $39.95 With only two slim chapters on native forests and their ecology, this book should more honestly be called "Indigenous Forestry in New Zealand". It is almost entirely an account of the demise of native forests at the hands of successive waves of settlers and ever more efficient logging technologies. As an account of the evolution of government forestry policy it is interesting reading, and more honest than Allsop’s 50-year history of the NZ Forest Service. Conservationists reading this book will be surprised to note that the historic public campaigns for forest protection, from Waipoua to South Westland, barely rate a mention. The shallow treatment of the natural values of native forests is also disappointing, and reflects the author’s expertise in forestry. His challenge to the popular view of the early Maori as benign forest conservationists will stimulate further debate. This 1s

not the last word on native forests nor on the interpretation of the history of the destruction of 75 percent of our native forest heritage.