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NZ Court Rules Against Chinese Company in Forest Slash Case

Environmental group hails court decision against Chinese-owned forest company


Tue 20 Aug 24

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An NZ environmental group has hailed a new Environment Court decision against a Chinese-owned forest company as a major breakthrough in the fight against forestry slash.

Last month, Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti and the Gisborne District Council took action in the Environment Court at Auckland against China Forestry Group NZ and management company Wood Marketing Services for operating in the Kānuka Forest in the Upper Waimata River catchment.

The court ruling, released on Friday, said China Forestry Group NZ and Wood Marketing Services must cease dumping woody debris and sediment. Other requirements include slash removal and stabilisation works, water controls, slash catchers monitoring and maintenance, and reporting. A new order also concerns the retirement of part of the forest.

The ruling said: “All involved in this proceeding agree the problems that have occurred in recent years are unacceptable”.

Wood Central understands that some of the work is to be carried out by the end of the year. The ruling says Slash Catchers and woody debris-catching devices must be installed by August 2025.

At the hearing, Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti spokesman Manu Caddie said this showed there were real repercussions for lousy land management, and that was a clear signal to all forest companies that they needed to improve harvest practices.

“It sets a precedent. It shows that the court is taking these matters very seriously. Hopefully, companies that thought they could get away with poor practices will realise that there will be no sympathy from the courts who expect them to clean up their mess before they leave the site.”

Mr Caddie said that, unfortunately, past successful prosecutions against forestry companies had not always resulted in improved harvesting practices. However, the regulator was now doing a good job of monitoring and compliance, and the council took issues more seriously than in the past.

The court outlined a concern that just before the court hearing started, a director of CFG, Yuxia Sun, resigned from the role he had held since 2018. All other directors are based in China and were named respondents in the case brought by the Gisborne District Council. A new director, Yihang Liu, was appointed in May but was not subject to the orders because he was not a party to the proceeding.

Mr Caddie said that since 90% of the land in Tairāwhiti was steep and erodable, plantation forestry did not have a future in Tairāwhiti. However, forestry needed to help transition to different land uses—particularly permanent native forests. Before adding that, the new Luxon government needed to issue biodiversity credits or tweak the ETS to incentivise the transition from pines to native forests.

  • The article was published with extracts from an article that initially appeared in RNZ.

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  • Wood Central

    Wood Central is Australia’s first and only dedicated platform covering wood-based media across all digital platforms. Our vision is to develop an integrated platform for media, events, education, and products that connect, inform, and inspire the people and organisations who work in and promote forestry, timber, and fibre.

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