Introduction
The Canterbury region is one of New Zealand’s main economic units. Its urban centre, Christchurch, is the South Island’s largest city and a leading New Zealand centre in electronics, telecommunications and software development. The region is proving an attractive business investment environment, and forest industry is playing an increasingly significant role.
Forest harvest levels in Canterbury are forecast to increase substantially from the current level of around 800 000 cubic metres to over 1.2 million cubic metres in 2005. This offers a significant opportunity for additional wood processing investment. Canterbury also has large areas of land suitable for forestry. Moist and higher-altitude inland areas are well suited to Douglas-fir, providing a species alternative to radiata pine for forestry investors.
Canterbury - An Overview
The Canterbury wood supply region corresponds closely to the territorial boundaries of Environment Canterbury, except for Kaikoura District (which is included in the Nelson Marlborough wood supply region) and Waitaki District (included in the Otago/Southland wood supply region). The wood supply region has an area of approximately 3.8 million hectares.
Canterbury’s population was 451 395 at the March 1996 Census. Christchurch is the South Island’s largest city with a population of 313 969. It is also New Zealand’s second largest manufacturing centre (after Auckland). Port Lyttelton, near Christchurch, is the South Island’s largest export port. Timaru is the largest centre in the south of the region (Timaru District’s population is 42 813) and also has an export port.
Christchurch has a large pool of skilled labour as well as professional resources in engineering, commerce and other business support services. It has two universities: Canterbury University at Ilam has the Canterbury School of Forestry and School of Engineering, and Lincoln University (in Lincoln township just south of Christchurch) has faculties in land resource sciences and commerce that also include forestry. The South Island office of Forest Research is also located in Christchurch. Land resource and agriculture Crown research institutes are based at Lincoln.
Flat and gentle rolling arable land and pastoral hill country each account for about 20 percent of the region, planted forest 3 percent (mainly on frontal foothill country), and urban land less than 1 percent. The remaining land is mostly mountainous country in the west, which is managed for conservation and recreation purposes.
Farming dominates productive land use in Canterbury, with intensive mixed farming (pastoral and cropping) on better plains and downlands areas, and horticulture on suitable soils near population centres. Conversion from sheep, beef and crop production in some parts of the plains to dairy farming has been a recent phenomenon. The use of trees to provide shelter and shade for livestock, and shelter for domestic dwellings, is a significant feature of the plains and downlands. More extensive pastoral farming occurs on the hill and high country.
Significant features of the region which affect forestry development are:
- A steep rainfall gradient from the western high and hill country to the eastern plains, resulting in large differences in forestry potential.
- Summer drought, that can limit forest growth in parts of Canterbury, compounded by strong, dry north-west winds and free draining soils.
- A highly developed road and rail infrastructure, with ports near Christchurch (Port Lyttelton) and at Timaru.
- Linkages of Christchurch, Timaru, and the ports at Lyttelton and Timaru, to the South Island rail and road network and to other South Island forest resources.
- A large water resource and hydro-electric capacity.
- Extensive areas of land suited to industrial development.
- Generally low harvesting and transport cost structures owing to the region’s easy topography, stable landforms and the good transport infrastructure.
- Opportunities for species alternatives such as Douglas-fir, Corsican and ponderosa pines, which grow well on the region’s moist and higher altitude inland areas.
The Southern Alps on Canterbury’s western boundary, and the secondary ranges further east, were created by sedimentary rocks uplifting along the major South Island seismic fault lines. The large valleys and basins within these mountains are known as the Canterbury high country.
To the east are gentle downlands and extensive alluvial outwash plains that extend to form the coastline of much of mid-Canterbury. The Canterbury plains are the largest plains in New Zealand. The coastal hills of Banks Peninsula are of volcanic origin and the North Canterbury coastal hills are formed from uplifted sedimentary rocks.
Canterbury soils mainly developed from wind-blown dust (loess). They are generally lightly structured, of medium fertility for agricultural purposes and prone to wind erosion if
Most soils in the Canterbury plains and inland alluvial basins are shallow and underlaid with free-draining gravels. These soils have a low moisture storage capacity and are prone to drought. On downlands, hill country, and old moraine surfaces in the high country, soils have a deeper loess base and good water storage capacities.
Canterbury soils are generally fertile for forestry. The only widespread deficiencies are boron and magnesium, which can be easily corrected at minimal cost.
Canterbury’s climate is strongly influenced by north-westerly winds that create a steep moisture gradient from the west along the main divide of the Southern Alps (average annual rainfall about 5000 millimetres), to the dry eastern margins of the intermontane basins and coastal areas (average annual rainfall 500 to 800 millimetres).
The coastal hill country and foothills west of the Canterbury plains have moderate annual rainfalls of about 900 to 1400 millimetres, most of which comes from the easterly and southerly airflows. Summer drought is the main limiting factor for agricultural production and forest growth, compounded by dry north-west winds and free draining soils. Intensive agriculture and horticulture require good tree shelter to make the most of the land uses and protect against soil loss and crop damage from wind storms.
Contact for Enquiries
Policy Analyst - Forestry
Innovation and Research
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Tel: +64 4 894 0100
Fax: +64 4 894 0741
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