New Zealand's forestry trade is presently dominated by three countries, Australia, Japan and Korea. Between them, these countries absorbed 74 percent of New Zealand's 1995 exports. This market concentration leaves New Zealand vulnerable to downturns in any of these markets and is leading to New Zealand actively seeking a more diversified market base, particularly seeking greater scope to trade in processed products. Presently, logs comprise 82 percent of New Zealand's exports to Korea and 30 percent of exports to Japan.
A part of New Zealand's future trade strategy will be to substitute processed products for logs into Japan and Korea. Some slow progress has been made in this direction in Japan. New opportunities in these markets are expected as supply shortfalls from Indonesia and Malaysia occur, however, offsetting this will be reduced opportunities in the Australian market as that market moves toward self-sufficiency. Increasing production from Australia is a major concern for New Zealand since Australia presently absorbs around 30 percent of New Zealand's exports, including a considerably higher proportion of processed products. Increasing efforts are being devoted to the development of new markets.
In the long run, New Zealand may well find itself selling the bulk of its logs into Korea and China with some sawn timber being exported to these markets as well. China, although historically not proving a stable market, appears to offer vast potential. Japan may develop further into a market for processed product, particularly for panel products, while continuing to import a moderate volume of logs. New Zealand sawmillers may find their best opportunities in South-east Asia, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia. Some high quality timber should continue to be exported to the United States. Market-trading countries such as China-Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore are likely to continue to purchase a range of New Zealand wood products.
The pulp and paper sector is likely to become increasing focused on Australasia with only the Asian-owned pulp companies exporting beyond these bounds. This focus is likely to see a marked decline in New Zealand's imports of paper and consequently in total forestry imports. Figure 7 shows exports of forestry products to New Zealand's major markets during the past five years.
Figure 7: Value of NZ Forestry Exports by Destination Country 1991-1995 ($NZ)
Source:NZMOF
New Zealand's roles in global forestry can be broadly summarized in four categories:
i) as already discussed, at an industrial level New Zealand is a net exporter of forestry products;
ii) in global forestry debates New Zealand is a small and generally moderate country regarded by most as having few "axes to grind". It's primary contribution is often as an arbiter or conciliator, seeking ways to progress deadlocks between more protagonistic countries. New Zealand's primary concern is to ensure plantation forestry, as practised in New Zealand, continues to internationally accepted as a means of achieving environmental objectives;
iii) as described in the introduction New Zealand provides a "model" for a range of topical policies including plantation forestry and privatization;
iv) in the South Pacific New Zealand is a substantial source of development funding. New Zealand's bilateral assistance on forestry is provided in response to specific requests from partner governments on the basis of their national and regional plans and priorities. Bilateral assistance is directed primarily to the island states of the South Pacific. New Zealand participates in projects by contributing technical assistance, cash grants, material supplies, and training. Currently New Zealand is associated with overseas development assistance in seven Pacific Island Developing Countries.
The 25th South Pacific Forum held in Brisbane from 31 July to 2 August 1994 expressed concern at the destructive harvesting of forests in the region and the world. The Prime Ministers of Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu agreed at the Forum to `work towards a common code of conduct on logging of indigenous forests to which companies operating in their countries will adhere and on the need to increase urgently monitoring of logging and exports of timber'. A regional code of conduct was drafted through two meetings of government officials and technical foresters. It was ratified at the Forum meeting in mid-1995.
New Zealand became a member of the ITTO in 1992. This is particularly significant since at the same time when New Zealand was withdrawing from a number of other commodity agreements. At the 16th session of the Council New Zealand was elected as Vice-chair for 1995 and to be Chairman in 1996. New Zealand has unconditionally signed the renegotiated International Tropical Timber Agreement and is also a signatory to the attached Consumer Group statement which parallels Target 2000, committing to sustainable management of its own forests by 2000.
New Zealand is playing an active role in international working groups seeking to develop criteria and indicators for the sustainable management of the world's forests, especially the Montreal Process. New Zealand has been actively involved in the range of initiatives and more recently this includes FAO's Ministerial meeting and COFO, Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, the World Commission on Forestry and Sustainable Development, and various certification initiatives.
The New Zealand Government has ratified the Framework Convention on Climate Change and has introduced a number of policy measures which are expected to limit CO2 emissions. These policies are spelt out in detail in New Zealand's national communication under the Framework Convention on Climate Change which was submitted in September 1994. New Zealand's forest sinks play an important role in New Zealand's CO2 emissions limitation strategy.
New Zealand undertook an analysis of its legislation and policies prior to ratifying the Convention on Biological Diversity in September 1993. In doing so it considered the status and management of its forests and related dependant ecosystems and species. The protected forested areas in New Zealand provide a significant contribution to conservation of New Zealand's biodiversity. Similarly, the measures that are available under a variety of other legislation (e.g. the RMA and the indigenous forest provisions of the Forests Act) provide for effective measures to ensure that any use of non-protected forest resources is sustainable and does not contribute to the loss of biodiversity or result in land degradation.
