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The New Zealand Forest Owners Association (FOA) says proposed reforms to the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) will go some way in addressing the challenges forest owners face due to variable and unjustified local council rules. Source: Timberbiz Announced by Forestry Minister Todd McClay, the reform looks to tighten and clarify the conditions under which councils can impose rules more stringent than the NES-CF and review forestry operations requirements for management of harvest debris. New Zealand Forest Owners Association chief executive Dr Elizabeth Heeg says the forestry sector has long called for clearer, nationally consistent regulation that provides certainty for growers. “Forest owners have been subject to a growing patchwork of conflicting council rules that contradict national policy,” Dr Heeg said. “Over time, these local variations have disrupted forestry operations, jeopardised long-term investment and undermined confidence in one of New Zealand’s most sustainable and regionally significant industries. “The NES-CF was originally designed to ensure national consistency in how forestry is managed. It’s hoped that, from our initial reading, these proposed changes will help restore that intent and recognise the vital role forestry plays in New Zealand’s economic and environmental future.” Dr Heeg says forestry is not looking for a regulatory pass but a fair, science-based regulatory environment that reflects forestry’s important contributions to sustainable fibre production, biodiversity and climate outcomes and regional employment. “It’s critical that the reform strikes a careful balance between enabling operational efficiency and strong environmental safeguards by remaining rooted in scientifically supported change,” she aid. Dr Heeg says the proposed introduction of a mandatory Slash Mobilisation Risk Assessment could be a constructive, practical tool for the industry that will reinforce the work the sector is already undertaking to mitigate climate-induced risk. “We want to be good neighbours, and we want to operate to high standards,” Dr Heeg said. “But we need a framework that’s predictable, proportionate and nationally coherent. That’s what these changes could offer.” Consultation on the proposed changes to the NES-CF is open until 27 July 2025 through the Ministry for the Environment’s website. The NZFOA encourages all those with a stake in the future of forestry in New Zealand including landowners, wood processors, regional communities and iwi to engage with the consultation process.

The New Zealand Government is taking firm action to ensure commercial forestry, one of New Zealand’s most productive and sustainable export sectors, is not stifled by red tape and inconsistent council rules Minister of Forestry Todd McClay announced. Source: Timberbiz Public consultation opens this week on proposed amendments to the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF), aimed at restoring national consistency and protecting the sector’s right to operate. “Our fibre sector from forestry to wood processors plays a crucial role in New Zealand’s economy, particularly in regional communities,” Mr McClay said. “These changes are about getting foresters and wood processors back in the driver’s seat and stopping councils from using their plans to rewrite the rules on forestry through the back door.” The current NES-CF was designed to provide a nationally consistent framework for managing the environmental effects of plantation forestry. However, recent changes have allowed councils to bypass that intent by imposing more stringent rules without justification, a trend that is now undermining investment and confidence in the sector. Key proposed changes include: Clarifying regulation 6(1)(a) to tighten the conditions under which a council can impose rules that are more stringent than national direction. Repealing regulation 6(4A), which currently gives councils broad discretion to override the NES-CF for afforestation without justification. Strengthening slash management by requiring a Slash Mobilisation Risk Assessment as part of all harvest management plans and considering refining requirements to remove all slash above a certain size from forest cutovers. Tidying up the NES-CF with minor amendments to remove duplication and improve clarity for foresters and councils alike. “We are hearing loud and clear from the forestry sector – and from regional New Zealand – that the current rules aren’t working,” Mr McClay said. “Too many councils are starting to use vague discretion to block or delay forestry operations that meet national environmental standards. That’s not what the system was designed for, so we’re fixing it.” The forestry sector has been vocal about the need for a consistent regulatory environment that enables long-term planning and sustainable growth. These proposed changes are intended to support that vision while still managing environmental risks, including from storm events and slash. “This Government backs the fibre sector – and that means making sure regulation is clear, practical, and nationally consistent,” Mr McClay said. “Whether you’re planting trees, harvesting them, or processing them into world-leading products, you shouldn’t be subject to a different set of rules just because of which council you happen to fall under.” Consultation on the proposed changes to the NES-CF is now open via the Ministry for the Environment’s website and will run until 27 July 2025.

Timber Queensland is focused on future growth delivered by evidence-based solutions following the positive first meeting of the Timber Supply Chain Ministerial Roundtable. Source: Timberbiz “We welcome the commitment by the State Government to work with industry on improving our timber supply chains to meet ever growing demand for future housing and construction needs,” Timber Queensland CEO Mick Stephens said. “This includes the target of building 1 million new homes in Queensland over the next two decades. “We can identify key actions to support this target through boosting our plantation softwood and native forestry resources along with wood processing in order to build and furnish more homes and buildings with renewable local timber materials. “We also recognise the broader social and environmental benefits from supporting this essential industry, including regional jobs and economic development, maintaining healthy forests and reducing our emissions in the built environment. “Given these upsides, we look forward to working on a bold plan that delivers policy certainty to increase sustainable production while at the same time safeguarding the environment. Both plantations and well-managed native forests will play a key role in the plan. “We care about our industry, our people and our environment. That is why we support the role of active forest management that can generate a wide range of ecosystem services, including carbon storage, recreational opportunities and wood fibre, that generate considerable benefits for people while also conserving biodiversity.” The assumption that harvesting timber from native forests is necessarily harmful to biodiversity is not correct and there is strong evidence that forests need to be managed actively. “This approach is in direct contrast to the views of some activist groups with ideological notions that forest reservation is the only way to deliver conservation outcomes. This rigid view fails to stack up against the evidence on the environmental benefits from well-managed native forestry,” Mr Stephens said. This evidence, particularly for species such as koalas and gliders, includes: long term research into koala abundance in the native forests of north-east NSW, with no difference in population densities in harvested state forests and national parks, noting key threats to koalas include disease, clearing for urban development and dog attacks; a cost-benefit study which found that state forests delivered better biodiversity outcomes and other economic and social benefits than if they were managed as national parks in South-East Queensland; recent surveys with a higher abundance of greater gliders in state forests in northern NSW than in nearby national parks, with twice the density in state forests; and broader carbon and biodiversity benefits from maintaining a hardwood timber industry in Queensland taking into account risks from imports and local environmental best practice. “We are not surprised by the findings, given state forests are managed in accordance with codes of forest practice to maintain healthy fauna populations with timber, recreation and biodiversity outcomes,” Mr Stephens said. “The fact that sightings of gliders in forests that have been selectively harvested for 100 years in Queensland are being used by some activists as a rationale for changing their tenure just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t pass the pub test. “We support state forests as important environmental assets which contrast against the challenges of many national parks that do not benefit from the same active stewardship that state forests receive.” Key issues in the parks include: pest and weed infestations; feral animal predations on local fauna; altered fire regimes such as a lack of active fuel reduction and risks of intense fires; a lack of access trails and road networks for fire management and suppression (compared to native forestry); high susceptibility to drought, fire and disease in the case of overstocked forests with a high density of suppressed and competing trees; no advantages from selective harvesting in the landscape with a diversity of habitat and foraging resources as in the case with state forests; poor carbon abatement outcomes compared with state forests which include forest sequestration and carbon storage in wood products, and substitution with steel and concrete; no revenues from timber harvesting to help pay for related infrastructure (e.g. campsites, mountain bike tracks, roads) and environmental management; and a lack of independent monitoring, certification or accountability of actual conservation outcomes compared with state forests that have internationally recognised PEFC sustainability certification.

New South Wales National Party senator Ross Cadell has replaced fellow National Senator Jonno Duniam as Shadow Minister for Forestry, Fisheries, Emergency Management and Water in the new Shadow Cabinet. Source: Timberbiz Senator Duniam, who served for several years in the forestry portfolio, both in government and opposition, has been appointed Shadow Minister for Education and Early Learning. Australian Forest Products CEO Diana Hallam said she looked forward to working with Senator Cadell and the Opposition. “Senator Cadell comes from the Newcastle area in NSW, so he’s very familiar with the importance of the industry along the NSW Mid-North and North Coasts, which provides a great grounding to build further knowledge and appreciation for the plantation, native, resource processing and manufacturing parts of the sector, located across Australia,” Ms Hallam said. “While we are excited about Senator Cadell’s elevation to the Shadow Ministry, it’s with some sadness that we farewell Senator Duniam from the forestry portfolio. “Senator Duniam has been a dedicated advocate for our sector. Notably, he led a suite of Coalition policies and other commitments to the 2022 Federal Election, many of which were ultimately reciprocated by the Labor Government and are being delivered now. “Senator Duniam will no doubt continue to advocate for the forestry and forest products sector as he continues service in the Shadow Ministry and as a proud Tasmanian Senator. We wish him well as Shadow Minister for Education and Early Learning. “We also welcome Angie Bell MP to the Environment portfolio and look forward to working with her on a range of issues, as well as Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Matt O’Sullivan, Senator Andrew Bragg as Shadow Minister for Housing, which is a critical portfolio for forest industries, as well as Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation, the Alex Hawke. “Forestry and its supply chain is of course Australia’s sixth largest manufacturing sector and is embarking on some exciting innovation, for example in the recycling space. “Like Federal Labor, the Federal Coalition has a strong record of supporting the sector and we’ll work hard to ensure that continues through the 48th Parliament and with cross bench MPs and Senators as well,” Ms Hallam said.

May is the month you can generally set your watch to being the export price tipping point, and this year is no different. Prices have dropped from the highs of February and March by around NZ$15/m3 to the early to mid-NZ$110’s/m3. As with April, there is a range of around $14/m3 between the highest and lowest exporter offerings and the usual spread of around $20/m3 between northern and southern ports. This puts the 3-year average for Southern North Island ports at a shade over $120/m3 for A grade. The 3-year average price is very important when looking at trends and unfortunately this has been on a downward trajectory since early 2023, which is no surprise considering that was about when the wheels really started falling off the Chinese construction market. Putting price to one side, the metrics don’t look too bad. Chinese port inventories are down around half a million cubic metres from April at 3.5Mm3 and uplift remains solid at 70,000m3 per day. As usual, NZ had a bumper first quarter in terms of volume production and with a 5-week delay from the stump to Chinese ports, it takes a while for this to play out in the market. There are already signs of less vessel arrivals as a result of the poorer April prices and wetter weather, and this will likely continue well into June. If we could get inventory levels below 3 million m3 we would be able to borrow a pair of Trump’s negotiating shoes and reposition ourselves on the supply/demand curve. No matter which way you look at it, China remains our most important trading partner for the forest industry by a country mile, taking around 60% of NZ’s harvest production in log form. Total softwood log imports into China fell from around 50 million cubic metres in 2021 to around 25 million in 2024 and the good news for NZ is that our market share has grown from 40% to 70% over the same period – so a larger piece of a smaller pie. It’s not only logs that are imported to China as lumber also arrives in significant volumes. If you convert the lumber volume into a log equivalent volume, the total softwood imports into China in 2021 was a shade over 75 million log cubic metres of which NZ supply was around 25%. Fast forward to 2024 and the total softwood import number is around 50 million cubic metres with NZ sitting in first place in terms of supply at 36% and Russia a fast follower at 32%. If you’re a pure numbers person you’d be getting excited about recent increases in Chinese exports which rose 12.4% in March and 8.1% in April. Part of those exports will be furniture, and furniture is made from lumber which comes from logs, NZ logs. Unfortunately, it’s pretty easy to see this is likely a result of tariff front loading rather than any change in real demand. In reality, the inverse is happening with a drop in furniture grade log prices (Pruned logs) in China as tariffs start driving negative sentiment amongst furniture manufacturers which is less than ideal. The domestic timber market is softer than the Greens’ justice policy and many sawmills dropped framing timber prices by around 5% in April. There are some expectations that this will be reversed in coming months with some of the larger sawmills notifying customers of increases between 5% and 7%. Whether this will have any flow-on to sawlog log prices is yet to be seen as prices are now generally fixed until the end of the quarter. There is definite pressure on pruned log prices as the clearwood market continues to be equally as flaccid, especially in the Asian markets. The apprehension of tariffs is weighing heavy and even though there is a tariff exemption into the US for NZ timber for the next 60 days, it’s anyone’s guess where it will land. Carbon prices have edged up and sit at $53.30/NZU at time of writing which is heading in the right direction, slowly. This is welcome relief after a period at sub $50 courtesy of the Climate Change Commissions recommendations that unsold auction units be reintroduced at auctions at a later date. The carbon game is no different from the log trade in that price fluctuations are driven by sentiment and supply/demand imbalances. Fingers and toes are crossed for further strengthening which may be supported by an expectation that many forest owners have sold what they needed to and will now sit on units and wait for better times. Historically, carbon prices have increased throughout the second half of the year as credit flows slow following the June 30 cutoff for claiming 2024 units. So, in a nutshell, it’s all a bit average really. This is nothing new for this time of year and if the current market conditions come as a surprise, you’ve not been around long enough. It will improve, maybe not in the next month or so, but the reducing inventory will put pressure on price and anytime you can get a number better than the 3-year average, you’re on the right side of the ledger. Holding out for a number reminiscent of those offered three or four years ago might be like waiting for Zelenski to give Putin a hug.  Marcus Musson, Forest360 Director