After big rate increases, New Zealand forest owners say they are being unfairly subjected to differential rating policies that should also be applied to other rural land owners. Some are making high level submissions seeking solutions from central government but at least one group is considering a legal challenge to what it claims is a district council’s ‘fatally flawed analysis’. In Australia there are similar problems with many forest owners resigned to simply building their own roads over and above paying council roading rates.
It has been a topsy-turvy year for New Zealand forest products exporters. After a dire 2005, there was a gleam of hope towards the end of first quarter when the Kiwi dollar began to weaken but as trade picked up margins were eroded by rocketing fuel costs that munched into margins even before logs hit the wharf. Now the dollar has strengthened again bringing back, if not quite doom and gloom, a depressingly familiar uncertainty.
It has been on the cards for 40 years or more that South Africa should, at some stage, run out of saw logs. Now it has actually happened, log prices have soared and imported lumber must feed the still booming housing market putting domestic sawmilling jobs at risk. This article looks at the background and asks why nothing was done to avert the crisis.
Demand across the Asian region for softwood logs such as radiata continues to increase, fuelled by China’s insatiable appetite for timber products, according to Agri-fax.
As the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association (NZFFA) marks its golden jubilee, membership is down and forestry plantings have plummeted to a 50-year low. A depressing scenario but the custom at significant anniversaries is to recall the vision and achievements have shaped the preceding years.
The Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) new pesticides policy has united FSC certified forest owners across Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States (CANZUS) in response to questionable science and a stunning lack of recognition of local conditions and established national regulatory frameworks. Many say that if the policy is implemented as it stands, forest owners will soon have to reconsider their hard-won membership of the elite and commercially valuable FSC club
After big rate increases, New Zealand forest owners say they are being unfairly subjected to differential rating policies that should also be applied to other rural land owners. Some are making high level submissions seeking solutions from central government but at least one group is considering a legal challenge to what it claims is a district council’s ‘fatally flawed analysis’. In Australia there are similar problems with many forest owners resigned to simply building their own roads over and above paying council roading rates.
“While you’re out there, look under the rocks” was the gist of the brief for this new column. It is true that I am “out there” quite a bit these days – the result of a few business and lifestyle changes, including spending more time in Australia developing our marketing and publishing interests. So here goes …
The way ahead for trade liberalisation is uncertain now that the major trading nations have poured cold water on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha negotiations.
