A National Exotic Forest Description (2007) – NEFD

6 Planting and harvesting estimates

New planting and restocking estimates
Harvesting data

Table 6.1: Land cover prior to new planting

Calendar years	Improved pasture (%)	Unimproved pasture (%)	Scrub (%)
1993	28	56	16
1994	49	35	16
1995	67	22	11
1996	36	50	14
1997	43	46	11
1998	44	47	9
1999	56	30	14
2000	52	31	17
2001	68	9	23
2002	31	49	20
2003	28	46	26
2004	18	46	36
2005	2	19	79
2006	2	35	63

For definitions of these land cover types refer to Appendix 1.

New planting and restocking estimates

The 2006 calendar year estimate of total planting is 37 000 hectares. This is made up of 2600 hectares of new planting and 34 400 hectares of restocking. The new planting estimate is based on the 2007 Agriculture Census estimate of new planting. The restocking estimate is based on data collected from forest owners in the 2007 NEFD survey.

Approximately 35 600 hectares of previously harvested forest remained unplanted, awaiting restocking as at 1 April 2007. It is provisionally estimated that 2000 hectares of new planting occurred during the 2007 calendar year.

The average new planting rate over the last 30 years has been 40 000 hectares per year. In the period 1992 to 1998 new planting rates were high – averaging 69 000 hectares per year. Since 1998, new planting has declined. At 2000 hectares in the year ending December 2007, new planting is at its lowest level since 1950.

Of the new planting captured directly in the 2007 NEFD survey, 35 percent occurred on unimproved pasture, 2 percent on improved pasture and 63 percent on land where scrub was previously the predominant land cover. Table 6.1 shows in percentage terms the predominant land cover prior to planting since 1993.

The estimates of land cover prior to new planting are based solely on the new planting information collected in postal surveys (see Table 3.1). In some instances, postal survey respondents who had undertaken new planting did not state the land cover prior to planting. While the sample size used to derive the proportions of land cover type prior to new planting is considered to be adequate, the estimates are biased towards the practices of the larger forest owners who are fully represented in the NEFD surveys.

Harvesting data

The 2007 NEFD survey estimated that the total volume harvested for the year ended 31 March 2007 was 19.3 million cubic metres. It is estimated that 19.0 million cubic metres came from clearfelling 43 000 hectares of planted forest, and 0.3 million cubic metres from production thinning.

The total volume of radiata pine harvested in the year ended 31 March 2007 was 17.9 million cubic metres, from clearfelling 38 700 hectares of forest. The area-weighted average clearfell age of radiata pine decreased slightly from 28.2 years in the year ended 31 March 2006 to 28.1 years in the year ended 31 March 2007.

Of the 17.9 million cubic metres of radiata pine, it is estimated that approximately 13 percent were sold as pruned logs, 67 percent were sold as unpruned logs, and 20 percent were sold as pulp and chip logs. These estimates are based on a question first added in the 2005 NEFD questionnaire.

Another estimate of roundwood removals from planted forest for the same period was 20.0 million cubic metres (Annual Log and Roundwood Removal Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, December 2007). This estimate is based on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s annual surveys of forest processing plants and export data from Statistics New Zealand. Conversion factors are used to indirectly estimate total roundwood input required to produce total forest products output.

A project to produce new wood availability forecasts started in 2006. The Nelson/Marlborough region wood availability forecasts were published in September 2006. Wood availability forecasts for the Otago/Southland, Canterbury, Hawkes Bay and East Coast regions are also published on the MAF website (www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/publications/wood-availability/).

Forecasts will progressively be produced and published for all the wood supply regions. Once all the regions have been completed, a national overview will be produced. These new regional forecasts incorporate the harvesting intentions of major forest owners in each region.

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