"Wood availability from New Zealand's forests is forecast to increase over the next 15 years. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has recently released new national forecasts showing the potential wood availability out to 2040. There are two clear phases to the increase:
- From 2010 to 2105 where wood availability is forecast to increase by 4 million cubic metres/year from the current level of around 20 million m3/year to 24 million m3/year. Most of this increase comes from large-scale forest owners, particularly in the Central North Island, Northland and Gisborne.
- From 2015 to 2025 there are larger increases expected with potential wood availability reaching an annual level of up to 35 million m3/year. Most of this increase will come from smaller-scale forest owners who established forests during the 1990's.
Separate forecasts have been produced for large-scale owners (owners with 1000 hectares of forest or more) and smaller-scale owners. For the next 15 years the large-scale owners' forests are able to sustain an annual supply of between 20-22 million cubic metres of radiata pine. Between 2010 and 2015, the smaller-scale owners' forests have the capacity to supply an additional 3 to 4 million cubic metres per year. After 2015 and leading into the 2020', the potential wood available from the smaller-scale owners forests increases up to 15 million cubic metres per annum."
(Thanks to the guys at Friday Offcuts for this news piece)
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