Figures in the 2019 National Exotic Forest Description (NEFD) run by Forestry New Zealand indicate the national exotic forest estate has actually declined, shedding 7900ha to total 1.69658m hectares last April.
That is 2% below the 10-year average for forestry plantations of 1.73m hectares. NZ’s highest-ever exotic forest plantings were in 2003 when the area peaked at 1.827m hectares.
The data also indicates plantings of new exotic forest were only 22,000ha, leaving a significant shortfall to the 50,000ha target.
The 22,000ha of new plantings compares to 30,000ha of new land planted in 2001.
However, while exotic forest totals have declined, officials are confident the ambitious target is closer to being filled once plantings of native trees are taken into account.
A ministry spokesman said neither native trees nor plantings from forest owners with exotic forests less than 40ha were included.
“We estimate there are over 10,000 forest owners with less than 40ha of forestry, making up around 17% of the exotic forest estate.
“We have a work programme to make improvements to data quality for smaller forests and will incorporate improved data into future reports.”
The NEFD figure of 22,000ha comes from large forest owners surveyed, known foresters, ministry planting grants for exotics and Crown Forestry planting.
The ministry estimates about 9m native seedlings were planted last year.
That would bring the total planting estimate for all types of trees to just over 30m trees or about 30,000ha.
Forestry officials said the total reported area of exotic forest has declined due primarily to fire losses and because of improvements in information quality.
Forest Owners Association president Peter Weir said anomalies in data collection have been acknowledged by the industry and the fact much of the small plantings are wild-as guesswork.
“We know we need to do better given the questions coming up around carbon. Trees are such a critical part of the policy.”
He acknowledged the figures are still well shy of the 50,000ha a year goal.
“But they are still 15,000ha more than when the last government was in power.”
There is also a considerable portion of land bought for forestry but which has not yet been planted as it gets sprayed out and readied for planting in the coming year.
He also suspects the strong red meat prices are starting to influence just how much more farmland can be bought for forestry planting.
“This may have already priced some potential investors out of the market.”
But given the pastoral sector has five years to prove it can reduce emissions or face entering the Emissions Trading Scheme, he expected there might be an uptick in smaller on-farm plantings to help offset farm emissions in coming years.
