International Year of the Forests

by Catherine Delahunty

Last night I went to an event at Parliament to acknowledge the International Year of the Forests. It was attended by forestry interests with diverse agendas, from preservation of the indigenous ecosystem, to selling logs to China. I was heartened by the unanimity in calling for the Minister to ban the import of illegal and unsustainable tropical timber. No one in the industry or the environment movement, let alone the many who have signed the Green’s petition against the import of illegal rainforest timber, will let the New Zealand Government ignore the growing international demand for change. The Australian Government is well advanced in their work towards legislation to ban the import of illegal and unsustainable tropical timber. So let’s encourage the Minister to continue following in Australia’s wake on this issue. We must not continue be one of the loophole markets for this blood-stained product.

Earlier in the day, my Select Committee had heard from SCION the Crown Research Institute based in Rotorua.  SCION is doing some great work investigating the benefits of diverse species forests and products, including wood based plastics to replace the some of the chemical based plastic products.  Unfortunately, they are also hand in glove with ArborGen, a USA company with a new field trial of GE trees about to be planted out in New Zealand. The last New Zealand field trial in 2008 was abandoned due to issues with containment and monitoring. I challenged SCION about this work given that the New Zealand Forest Stewardship Certification standards are in the final stages of negotiation, and those standards do not accept GE trees.  The answer (paraphrased) was, “we know but maybe one day the world will want GE trees.”  I don’t think so.

In the Year of the Forests, let’s stop GE tree trials and ban the import of illegal and unsustainable tropical timber!