The New Zealand Institute of Forestry would welcome additional pest control to save Northland’s Forests

The New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) is concerned about the rapid degradation of Northland’s forests due to inadequate pest control. “The short film made public by Forest and Bird shows as a society we have a serious problem if we are to even maintain our native forests” said NZIF President James Treadwell.

Mr Treadwell continued to say “NZIF has been calling for a review of how the maintenance and conservation of native forests are funded for some time. Most New Zealanders know of area of native forest being decimated by pests.”

“The Department of Conservation do a fantastic job on a very limited budget. At a time when our Government is supporting calls for other countries to cease clearing forests to help climate change it is a disgrace our own forests are slowly being destroyed by introduced pests.”

Mr Treadwell is calling on the Government to immediately review the funding of the DoC estate, ensuring DoC have the funds required to ensure the long term survival of New Zealand’s forests. “If the funds cannot be found from the general purse then perhaps New Zealand needs to have a conversation about how these forests may raise funding themselves. This could be through tourism, sustainable harvesting of individual trees, payment for biodiversity services , etc.”

“NZIF supports Forest and Bird highlighting this issue and would like to see an urgent discussion about how we are going to save our native forests. Failure to do so may see the end of our native forests as we know them” said Mr Treadwell.

ENDS

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