An Overview
New Zealand's planted production forests covered an estimated 1.82 million hectares as at 1 April 2004. This area is estimated to be accurate to plus or minus 5 percent. That is, the total area (net stocked) is estimated to be between 1.73 and 1.91 million hectares. It is acknowledged that possible sources of error include some small owners over-estimating net stocked area. For further information refer to page 7 of this report, "Reliability of Data".
Seventy percent of the area is in the North Island and 30 percent is in the South Island. Thirty-one percent of the entire planted forest estate is in the Central North Island wood supply region.
Radiata pine is the dominant species, making up 89 percent of the planted forest area, with Douglas-fir the next most common species, making up 6 percent. The balance comprises other softwood and hardwood species.
About 65 percent (1.05 million hectares) of the radiata pine planted forest estate is, or is expected to be, pruned to a height of at least four metres. Approximately 9 percent (94,000 hectares) of pruned radiata pine is older than 25 years, while 16 percent (173,000 hectares) of pruned radiata pine is between 21 and 25 years old. Seventy-five percent (787,000 hectares) of the pruned radiata pine estate is 20 years old or younger.
Approximately 18 percent of the radiata pine planted forests currently is, or is expected to be, production thinned. The area of production thinned forest has declined in recent years: in 1995 twenty eight percent of the radiata pine forests was, or was intended to be, production thinned. Production thinning of the radiata resource has decreased in the Central North Island wood supply region from 65 percent in 1995 to 27 percent in 2004.
An estimated 19,900 hectares of new forest were established in 2003. Twenty-eight percent of this planting occurred on improved pasture, 26 percent on land where scrub was previously the predominant land cover and 46 percent on unimproved pasture. It is provisionally estimated that 10,600 hectares of new planting occurred during 2004.
The average new planting rate over the last 30 years has been 44,000 hectares per year. In the period 1992 to 1998 new planting rates were high; during this period new planting averaged 69,000 hectares per year. Since 1998 the rates of new planting have declined. At 10,600 hectares in 2004 new planting is now well below the average afforestation rate of the last 30 years, continuing the downward trend in new planting.
Between 1990 and 2003 it is estimated that 660,000 hectares of new forest have been established. New entrants to forestry have carried out much of this new planting. MAF has recently completed a survey of forest growers with less than 40 ha of forests, and these results are incorporated in this report. While these new owners have planted a significant area during the 1990s, 71 percent (1.3 million hectares) of the entire forest resource is still currently owned by growers with more than one thousand hectares of forest.
The relatively new trend of not replanting forest after harvesting, and in a few cases converting immature forest to pasture, has started on a larger scale over the last 2 to 3 years. New Zealand has always had a relatively dynamic landscape so changes in land-use are not unusual, however historically little conversion of planted production forest land has occurred. It is understood that approximately 10,000 hectares of planted forest has been converted to pasture between 2002 and 2004.
Historical information indicates that only about 2 to 3 percent of the area harvested has not been replanted in the past. To better quantify this, a question was added to the NEFD survey in 2001. The results to this question have not been published to date as the question has not been answered by all forest owners. Further follow-up with forest owners will be undertaken in 2005. If reliable estimates of clear-felled land not being replanted can be collected these will be included in the 2005 NEFD Report.
Maps 3 and 4 in this report show the location of New Zealand's planted forests as identified in the New Zealand Land Cover Database version 2 (NZLCDB2). Maps 5 and 6 show the ownership of the major forests in New Zealand see also www.maf.govt.nz/statistics.
Significant areas of forest established in the 1970s are now maturing and are expected to be harvested over the next decade. Details about these forecast increases in harvest levels are available in NEFD National and Regional Wood Supply Forecasts 2000. A new set of regional wood availability forecasts is planned to be produced in 2006.
An estimated 19.4 million cubic metres of roundwood were harvested from New Zealand's planted production forests in the year ended 31 March 2004. An estimated 18.6 million cubic metres came from clear felling 40,800 hectares of planted forest, and 0.8 million cubic metres from production thinning. About 38,200 hectares of previously clear felled planted forest were replanted in 2003.
An electronic copy of the full NEFD report is available on the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's Internet site: http://www.maf.govt.nz/forestry. The detailed statistical tables from this electronic report
can be downloaded directly into Microsoft Excel.
Contact for Enquiries
MAF Information Services
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Fax: +64 4 894 0721
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