Gisborne District Council unfairly criticised for forestry regulation handling - land use group

A Tairāwhiti group advocating for better land use says Gisborne District Council has been unfairly criticised in its handling of forestry regulation.

An independent review into the council's approach to the industry released this week found no evidence of anti-forestry bias.

The district had been plagued by slash and debris clogging waterways and creating risks to life and property during storms.

The review was commissioned amid criticism from industry and central government that the council was being too tough on forestry companies.

Review chair Chris Finalyson KC said both local and central government had a role in shifting the area to safer growth and harvesting practices.

"We took a very close look at the enforcement order regime but, I think the settings are right, the companies know where they stand and now's the time for angry words to stop and considered action to start," Finalyson said

Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti spokesperson Manu Caddie said the report showed the council had acted diligently and in good faith in regulating forestry activities.

He said the report's conclusions underlined the Crown's role in supporting the move away from forestry on areas prone to erosion.

"There seems to be general agreement, at the local level, that there's about 100,000 hectares that need to transition.

"We need central government support otherwise we're just not going to be able to afford to do it and the region will become increasingly unliveable for people," Caddie said.

Chief operating officer for the Environmental Defence Society, Shay Schlaepfer, said the council's lack of regulatory oversight of forestry ahead of 2017 meant it had to move fast to catch up and that had added to friction between itself and the forestry industry.

She said she hoped the result would stimulate action by the Crown to help address problems in the area that had been exposed by the increase in severe weather.

She said central government needed to remove barriers preventing the council from implementing changes and provide better support to fund the repurposing of erosion prone forestry land.

"We need to action change quickly because we don't know when the next big adverse weather event will arrive but it could be this summer.

"We don't need any more of these reports. The problem is clearly identified. What's required is that the Crown steps in to assist industry and council, remove the barriers for the transition and make it happen," Schlaepfer said.

She said central government had an important role to play.

"The Crown has effectively stopped the council's ability to initiate and progress that regulatory pathway to transition. That has occurred through the changes to the Resource Management Act and the Government's Plan Stop notice. Removing those barriers would mean that the Government approves the ability for council to progress with those processes.

"That would enable a conversation to occur within the community about what is the appropriate regulatory response to deal with taking down the trees that are at most risk and retiring that land, or doing something else with it, that is going to de-risk that land."

Schlaepfer said the report had identified national problems, such as liability issues caused by land being used as a part of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that council could not be expected to navigate at local level.

"A lot of the forest that are currently in the area that needs to be transitioned out of rotational forestry are currently registered in the ETS. Retiring that land and those forests will mean that they will incur liabilities. That is a significant financial burden for those foresters and land owners to bear. So we need to work through, in an equitable way, how to manage those forests out from the ETS," Schlaepfer said.

Chair of the Eastland Wood Council, Julian Kohn, said the review had identified poor communication and a lack of expertise in the Gisborne District Council's forestry consenting team.

He said nearly 30 percent of forestry in Tairāwhiti had been revealed to be on land that was unsuitable for pines.

He said market limitations and council consent conditions had stood in the way of companies wanting to transition problematic land from pine planting.

"The approach from the regulators has been such that they are effectively looking for no movement of woody debris and soil outside the forest gate. Given the environment we live in that's pretty much impossible to achieve in the current climate conditions with the current climate situation," Kohn said.

But Kohn said, even with some forestry companies already working to transition away from problem areas, it could be decades before the problem was fully resolved.

"Forestry recognises that there's some serious environmental challenges and accept that we have a responsibility to manage them in an appropriate fashion. It's not something that's new to the industry.

"Unless we can get accelerated harvesting going in the region and get into these more sensitive areas then our ability to transition the land is stymied.

"It's about opening up the conversation, continuing down the road of co-operation and finding the answers to some of these sticking points or the blockages to these consents so that we can ensure, not only that these people [staff] that we need to hold [in] the region to assist with the transition continue to work, but we have a thriving community where we have opportunities for forestry and a proportionate and enduring industry and therefore a thriving community.

"At the end of the day that's what we're all looking for," Kohn said.