Plantation Certification in New Zealand
- an NGO Perspective

By Grant Rosoman
Greenpeace Forests Campaign

For delivery at: UNFF Intersessional Experts Meeting on the Role of Planted Forests in Sustainable Forest Management, 24-30 March 2003, New Zealand

Abstract

A short history of NGOs and the forest industry in NZ is reviewed. With the transition of the industry out of controversial indigenous forest logging in the 1970s and 80s, and to protection all publicly owned native forest, most NGOs have come to support the strategic direction of NZ wood supply from plantations (currently 99%). In particular the NZ Forest Accord 1991 began a new era with the agreement of no clearance of indigenous forests for plantations.

Greenpeace's forest campaign is described and in particular the role it sees for plantations and certification as mechanisms for protecting and restoring indigenous forests.

The emergence of certification in Aotearoa is discussed with NGO promotion of certification in the 1990s and plantation industry resistance. However, buyer demand/pressure, in particular for FSC has led to industry acceptance of FSC certification (currently about 40% of NZ plantations certified). Support for a certification national initiative emerged, focused on FSC's robust process requirements and credible standards. Consensus on a national standard is being sought with key issues from an environmental perspective being, pesticide use, GMOs, timber preservation treatment, indigenous people's rights, natural ecosystem reserve set aside requirements and restoration, habitat for rare, threatened & endangered species, and landscape ecology issues of monocultures vs mosaics, the production/conservation matrix and clear cut size.

Key lessons learned are summarised: plantations are not forests but we have learnt to live with them to achieve destructively sourced wood substitution and native forest restoration and protection. Certification is a civil society movement to assess and guarantee plantation and forest management, where governments and international institutions have failed. FSC is a credible comprehensive multi- stakeholder process. Its success relies on consensus at a national level on key social and environmental standards issues.

From Indigenous Forests to Plantations - a short history of forests, NGOs and the forest industry in New Zealand

New Zealand has a long history of indigenous forest conversion to grasslands, agriculture and plantations. In many parts of the country this process has been so thorough that there are no intact indigenous forests left. The productive lowland forest areas have suffered in particular, with overall less than 8% of their original extent remaining. The reliance of plantations as a source of wood and fibre was not a matter of good planning or management but rather a strategy to deal with the failure of the state and New Zealanders to management their native forests in any way for the future wood supply.

All of the publicly owned native forests are now in some form of protection, making up some 85% of the total forest area. Much of the remaining forest is in desperate need of restoration and ecosystem renewal following an onslaught over the last century or more of invasive forest weeds and pests. There are some 1.8 million ha of plantations in New Zealand, 95% being one species – radiata pine from California.

A rising public awareness that both indigenous forest logging was destructive and that the forests were running out, lead to a period of major conflict through the 1970s-80s. Several NGO campaigns were carried out to end destructive logging of remaining native forests. This resulted in a period of Accords being signed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the government getting out of native forest logging. The West Coast Accord and Tasman Accord were specific agreements to set aside areas of native forest and a focus on plantations as a substitute for wood supply. The NZ Forest Accord in 1991 was a negotiated agreement between most of the forest industry and environmental/conservation NGOs for no conversion of indigenous forests for plantations and NGO support for plantations. Greenpeace did not sign the NZ Forest Accord in protest of plantation industry that was a major polluter through toxic wood processing waste. Significantly, Maori were also missing from the Forest Accord. However, the transition of the industry out of the controversial indigenous forest logging in the 1970s and 80s to virtual full reliance on plantations, paved the way for support for the strategic direction of wood supply from plantations (currently 99%), both for protection and restoration of remaining indigenous forest, and for imported product substitution.

Greenpeace Forest Campaign and Plantations

Greenpeace’s forests campaign is focused on protecting the worlds remaining areas of ancient forest, including seven key regions of Asia-Pacific, Amazon, Congo Basin, Southern Chile, European Russia, Asian Russia, and North America. We are in particular focused around illegal and destructive logging, such as that of many Malaysian companies in Papua New Guinea, and European companies in the Congo.

Greenpeace doesn’t like plantations: we have learnt to live with them for strategic advantage. We disagree with calling them "planted forests" because they are not forests. We have major concerns about the continued conversion of forests for plantations in the Amazon, Indonesia, Canada and USA. Plantations are often promoted to meet the supply gap both in substitution for destructive wood and expansion for an increasing demand from a growing, affluent population. However, it is not enough justification for plantations to be considered ‘good’ if they are simply substituting, on a global basis, supplies from poorly managed or increasing depleted natural forests. They need to environmentally and socially perform at a site level if they are to win our support and also can be certified. We look in particular to the role they are playing in protecting and restoring indigenous forests.

Greenpeace supports certification of plantations to assess that they are credibly providing environmental and social benefits. Certification has emerged as a civil society movement and market mechanism with voluntary management standards, where government and international fora regulatory environments have failed.

The Emergence of FSC Certification in New Zealand

Once the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was established in 1993, Greenpeace and World Wide Fund for Nature began to promote certification to the New Zealand plantation industry and other stakeholders. Through till year 2000 the industry largely fought against FSC certification with the rationale that it was unnecessary (they were already carrying out "sustainable management"), FSC was an NGO dominated initiative, and it’s standards were not compatible with the New Zealand plantation ‘model’. This included promoting ISO 14000 as an alternative, and beginning to set up a New Zealand environmental checklist for performance under this.

However, buyer demand and pressure changed all of that. Moves by large buyers such as B&Q in the UK and Home Depot and Lowes in the USA to a preference for FSC products, gave the incentive for New Zealand plantation companies to move to FSC. Approximately one third of plantations are now FSC certified, with 12 forest management and 45 chain-of-custody certificates. This also gave enough momentum to establish a National Initiative (NI) for certification, largely based on the FSC’s robust process requirements and credible standards.

Building on the historic relationships developed from the process of negotiating the accords of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a NI was established after a first full stakeholder meeting in May 2001. This set up a NI with a key mission of developing standards (see NI structure in Figure 1 below). A key adaptation of FSC requirements was the adoption of a fourth chamber of stakeholders for Maori.

To ensure market acceptance and credibility the NI was established to meet in particular the requirements of the FSC. These include

  • Transparency: run in an open and participatory fashion, well documented and recorded;
  • Inclusive: identification and involving all key stakeholder groups (over half must be FSC members);
  • Equitable: involvement, facilitation and decision making based on consensus;
  • Legally constituted;
  • Dispute Resolution: have procedures for resolving complaints and disputes;

While the National Initiative has a key function of guiding the standards development process based on a local adaptation of the FSC Principles & Criteria, it also provides:

  • FSC representation and info,
  • national contact point and coordination,
  • promotion of certification and certified products
  • Control of FSC logo and name
  • Liaison with certification bodies

A multi-stakeholder process such as the FSC requires all efforts to be made to achieve a consensus, both in the running on the National Initiative, and on a national standard.

Figure 1: Key Environmental Issues for Plantation Certification

Since July 2001 there has been an ongoing process to develop a national standard for plantation management in Aotearoa. It is a significant commitment of time and resources and still on going. Internationally the average time to complete a national standard is probably in the range of 3-5 years.

Key issues from an environmental perspective are:

Pesticide use: identifying pesticides that are prohibited and those that are for priority phase out. We are seeking implementation of the goal of zero pesticide use. There are complications however, where in the short to medium term there are sometimes no other practical alternatives to controlling New Zealand’s burgening exotic weed and pest infestations.

Genetically Modified Organisms: clear requirement of a prohibition in the management unit being certified. Clarity needed on experimental plots and trials.

Timber preservation treatment: with 95% of plantations in New Zealand being the non-durable species radiata pine, the industry has fell into the trap of toxic timber treatment. Considering the downstream effects of this choice of species, we believe diversification into planting species with natural wood durability is required.

Indigenous people's and local community rights: ensuring ‘free and informed consent’ is achieved and that communities have a say and benefit from plantation management.

Natural forest ecosystem reserve set aside and restoration: plantations are required to be conserving and restoring natural forests. Most forest ecosystems in Aotearoa are heavily degraded and under-represented, particularly lowland. Key issue is how much is enough of a contribution from the plantation operations in the landscape.

Habitat for rare, threatened & endangered species: 85% of New Zealand’s species are endemic. Many require particular attention and provisions to maintain viable populations. Plantations are colonised by rare, threatened and endangered species, or they are found in set-aside reserves. Habitat includes indigenous wetlands and grasslands.

Planted species diversity: FSC requires preference for both native species and a range of different species.

Monocultures vs mosaics: monocultures run counter to the requirements of the FSC. We seek standards that transition large-scale monocultures to mosaics of stands that mimic natural landscape patterns. Clear-cut and block sizes and shapes need to be defined for different landscapes, with consideration given to balance of conservation focused and production focused components.

Carbon credits: Greenpeace opposed carbon credits for plantations, and considers a carbon credit mechanism only appropriate for permanently restored indigenous ecosystem areas.

Lessons Learned and Summary

Certification of plantations in Aotearoa has been a long time coming and is a major commitment by stakeholders. A National Initiative for certification was able to progress rapidly in New Zealand as there had been more than a decade of prior negotiation and meeting over key issues associated with plantation management, but in particular conversion of native forest. Key additions for a full multi-stakeholder process has been a dedicated chamber for indigenous peoples’ (Maori) interests, and the involvement a broader range of social interests. It was accepted from that outset that for the non-economic stakeholder interests to fully participate in the process, they would need to be resourced. The commitment of time and resources by those involved should not be underestimated. Therefore, the funding of the NI by industry and government has been essential to making a successful start.

While the NZ NI is being established for all certification activities, it is based on the FSC credible and comprehensive multi-stakeholder process and requirements. Its success relies on consensus as the decision making model of preference, to ensure all efforts are made to resolve issues and keep the support of key stakeholder groups. A key to the success of the NI will be agreement at a national level on key social and environmental standards issues in the plantation standards setting process. To provide a stable business and management environment, conflict on these issues is aiming to be resolved through the national process rather than burdening individual plantation certifications with dealing with these on a case-by-case basis. It involves in particular those who have direct economic interest in standards being as ‘low’ as possible, thereby reducing their compliance costs, accepting the new world of increasing environmental performance and having plantations become more like forests. As well, other stakeholders are required to understand the necessity of economic viability and for standards to be practical and achievable.

Key environmental standards issues for New Zealand are:

  • Toxics – pesticides, GMOs, and timber preservation treatment vs planting durable timber species,
  • Biodiversity – set-asides, restoration and protection of representative ecosystems, planted species diversity, and rare, threatened and endangered species, and
  • Landscape – monocultures or mosaics, block size, shape and pattern.

These issues are not unique to New Zealand but standards solutions need to be found that are appropriate for New Zealand. The FSC has the strength of mixing international guidance through the Principles and Criteria, policies and other FSC national or regional standards, and with local innovation and adaptation to find a workable and consensus standard.

Greenpeace and many NGOs do not accept that plantations are forests. We don’t like plantations but we have learnt to live with them to achieve destructively sourced wood substitution locally and in global markets, and assist native forest restoration and protection. In particular in Aotearoa plantations do have key role as the productive capacity of our indigenous forests have been so devastated over past centuries. There has been a trade-off of indigenous forest protection and conservation for support for plantations for wood supply. However, in many situations internationally plantations are not appropriate, such as where forest is cleared for them, they are without indigenous peoples’ informed consent, or they do not support local communities. So we can not give blanket or global approval to plantations, and opposition is greater when they are proposed as carbon credits as well.

Finally, certification is a civil society movement and market mechanism with voluntary performance standards to assess and guarantee plantation and forest management, where governments and international institutions have failed. It is playing a key role in transforming plantation practices worldwide, in rewarding them with market access over destructive forest products, as well as helping win market gains against less environmentally beneficial materials such as aluminium, steel and plastics.

Contact for Enquiries

MAF Information Services
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND

Fax: +64 4 894 0721
Contact this person