Adversaries in collaboration
In the '70s and the '80s, New Zealand's timber companies and conservation groups were at loggerheads continuously. In 1991, the companies and the groups finally got together and signed the New Zealand forest accord. The accord had the companies agreeing that they would move away from logging native forests in favour of concentrating on plantation forests.
Since 1991, both industry as well as the cause of conservation have profited from the accord. Tasman Forestry's managing director Bryce Heard is in no doubt about the advantages the accord offers industry: "The accord highlights the vital role plantation forests can perform in supplying our wood needs in an environmentally friendlier manner. This is a powerful marketing tool for our product.'
But a problem has reared its head in the government's failure to recognise and abide by the accord's provisions. In a bid to solve unemployment in North Island, the government recently proposed to clear 25,000 ha of shrublands and replant the area with pines. Companies were offered generous subsidies to persuade them to participate in the scheme. However, after protracted debates, the one company which had been attracted to the project