Seeing the wood for the trees

The organisation points to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's visit to Tasmania in February, where he announced an AU$86 million package for forestry in the island state. Morrison called forestry a 'critical national treasure', and said future supply is needed for future generations with global demand for timber products expected to quadruple by 2050.

President of the New Zealand Forest Owners Association Phil Taylor says the New Zealand industry is not seeking the type of financial support being delivered in Australia.

"Basically, all we want to do is get on with growing trees and responding to strong local and international demand. Our problem is a sequence of messages from the Government on new rules to restrict forest expansion."

He is referring to reports that the Government is planning to put a stop to the right to convert a whole farm to forestry.

Taylor says if there is a problem with carbon farming - planting trees to absorb carbon from pollution, reimbursed by the Emissions Trading Scheme - that should be treated separately. "Not by threatening to change the rules relating to production forestry."

"A modest expansion of the exotic plantation estate is vital to provide enough carbon sequestration for the Government to budget for a carbon zero economy by 2050," Taylor claims. "The right signals have to be sent to farmers and other landowners to ensure this happens and these are not the signals we are getting."

He echoes the expectations of Australia's government for a huge increase in wood demand.

"It's already happening with biofuels.

"Our industry is going to struggle to just meet the demand from New Zealand dairy processors to deliver enough wood material for heating powder driers as the processors move out of burning coal."

Taylor believes that NZ should be leading in producing these products, not adopting policies, which would result in having to import them.