WELLINGTON: New Zealand First leader and Northland MP Winston Peters is backing concerns by wood processors at the hollowing out of forests through the uncontrolled export of logs. Processors and forest owners including large Maori land trusts met officials in Whangarei this week to discuss an acute shortage of logs for Northland mills.
The processors say the harvest rate is unsustainable, Northland forests are being harvested and exported at an immature stage, there is little replanting and no new forests being planted. Mr Peters says the problem has been growing since the end of the 1990s.
“We are going to have to stop this massive export of New Zealand logs ad ensure out local sawmillers, our local timber added-value wood processors have that resource. That’s what Canada, Chile and other countries have done and we’re the one stand out country that has done nothing to preserve its local industry,” he says.
