Tairawhiti - Forestry Contractor (TFC) Meeting

FICA met with Tairawhiti Forestry Contractors in Gisborne 5 September. It was a great turn-out with an estimated 80% of contractors represented. A number of other contractors who were unable to attend have subsequently been added to a distribution list.

As a follow up to the meeting FICA has met with the Eastland Wood Council (EWC) and the GDC Mayor Rehette Stoltz to express concerns raised at the meeting.

Key messages were

1. Contractors don’t believe their voice is being heard, they need a unified voice. A meeting was held 5th September to give contractors an opportunity to make their concerns known.

2. More direct communication is required with the appropriate Ministers, the Mayor and CEO of the GDC Forest owners and to Contractor employees and they communities they live in.

3. The demise of Contractors will have a significant the Socio-economic impact, contractors are the people who employ most of the 850+ people that work in Forestry. These are well-paid jobs in remote locations where Forestry maybe the only employer in town (see Informetrics’ report commissioned by Trust Tairawhiti attached).

4. Contractors are under severe financial and mental stress, this is not sustainable in the short to medium term we don’t have years to sort this out we need to make progress now.

5. Forestry contractors are taking on the burden of cleaning up of cut-overs to a new standard without in some cases being fully compensated.

6. The current Consenting process is impacting on Contractor productivity and costs and hence sustainability.

7. Contractors are willing to be part of the solution we have the skills, knowledge and expertise to both contribute to the clean-up and mitigate impact in the future

8. Central Government and GDC were partially responsible for creating the problem they have an obligation to be part of the solution.

9. We are now undercutting the resource, trees and getting larger and ability to reduce debris is becoming more challenging

10. There needs to be clarity if and how forests and transitioned to new land use/regimes that mitigate slash who is going to pay for it, are forest companies compensated, how is ETS managed etc.

11. If we are unable to get traction, we may need to mobilise all those in the Forestry Community to advocate for Forestry in their communities, this may include public showing.

Certainly, the Mayor and EWC are well-aware of the current issues and there was no disagreement with most of what Rowan communicated above.

The dilemma we have at present is the GDC has an obligation as the regulator to protect communities, infrastructure and the environment. To do so, they are imposing standards (with regard to slash on cut-overs and discharge from forests) that the Forest companies believe they cannot achieve.

The Government have announced they will change the NES CF (mid-2025) to give greater clarity regarding slash and powers Councils have. Given a lot of the forests to be harvested are sitting on Orange >25 degrees and red land under current rules, all harvesting and roading must be consented anyway, the Council currently has the ability to impose more or less stringent rules.