West Coast Forest Industry and Wood Availability Forecast - June 2008
2 Overview
The West Coast region includes the land areas of the Buller, Grey and Westland Districts, a total of about 2 335 000 hectares. The Department of Conservation manages about 83 percent of the land area.
The region’s forestry sector has some distinctive local characteristics:
- Timberlands West Coast Ltd manages 86 percent of the 32 009 hectares of plantation forests.
- The Department of Conservation manages 92 percent of the 1 448 000 hectares indigenous forest.
- Roundwood removals from indigenous forests have decreased from 122 000 cubic metres for the year ended March 1990 to 3000 cubic metres for the year ended March 2007.
- Roundwood removals from plantation forests have increased from 41 000 cubic metres for the year ended March 1990 to 217 000 cubic metres for the year ended March 2007.
- Radiata pine produces low-density wood of light colouration and high sheen that is well suited to appearance grade uses.
- Most of the plantation forest resource is located on low-productivity sites.
- There are significant volumes of sawlogs both “exported” from the West Coast to Canterbury and Nelson and “imported” from those regions.
Previous wood availability forecasts have been over-optimistic. The new forecast reduces the available harvest for 2012 to 2015 from about 380 000 cubic metres per year to about 196 000 cubic metres per year, a reduction of 50 percent.
Table 2.1: Key statistics for the West Coast forest industry
| Statistics | Value |
|---|---|
| Stocked plantation forest area as at 1 April 2006 (hectares) | 32 009 |
| Estimated plantation forest roundwood removals – year ending March 20071 (m3) | 217 000 |
| Area weighted average age of plantation forest as at 1 April 2006 (years) | 14.34 |
| Sawn exotic timber production – year ending March 2007 (m3) | 88 372 |
| Estimated exotic log input to sawmills – year ending March 20072 (m3) | 159 000 |
| Estimated indigenous forest roundwood removals – year ending March 2007 (m3) | 3 000 |
| Sawn indigenous timber production – year ending March 2007 (m3) | 1 583 |
| Estimated regional wood processing capacity3 – roundwood (m3) | 250 000 |
| Direct employment (forestry and first stage processing) as at February 2006 (full-time equivalents) | 506 |
Source
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Notes:
1. Estimated roundwood removals are derived from processing outputs and log exports. They do not account for inter-regional log flows.
2. Estimated log input to sawmills includes logs sourced from other regions.
3. This is an estimate to the sum of the individual processing plants’ roundwood input capacities based on “usual” hours of operation.
Figure 2.1: Map of the West Coast Forest Industry
Source
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Contact for Enquiries
MAF Information Services
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Fax: +64 4 894 0721
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