Woodchipping in New Zealand is one of the sectors of the forestry industry and it attracted controversy in the 1990s when native trees were used as a source for the chipping.
Wood chip exports The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry collates figures on quantities of wood chip exports.
+ Wood chip exportsMinistry of Agriculture and Forestry – Quarterly Wood Chip Statistics Year Hardwood Softwood Quantity (BDU) Value ($) Quantity (BDU) Value ($) 1999 31,979 6,672 2000 46,069 10,198 2001 46,317 9,838 2002 6,721 1,278 2003 14,828 2,130 309,351 44,912 2004 18,636 1,869 206,345 29,868 2005 21,076 4,125 239,729 33,772 2006 47,438 9,606 186,436 29,832 2007 59,220 8,888 307,121 51,493 2008 67,525 17,670 307,881 65,844 2009 39,009 9,668 171,357 35,971 One BDU (bone dry unit) of hardwood chips in roundwood equivalent is 2.25 cubic metres and weighs 1090 kilograms.
Controversy Since the settlement of New Zealand by Māori and then by Europeans has seen a loss of 75% of the indigenous forest cover. With European settlement in the 19th century, large areas were cleared for pastoral farming and for logging. The export wood chip industry was the main cause of forest clearance on private land after 1970. By the 1980s, 95% of forest loss was due to wood chipping. The native forests were replanted with faster growing species such as the Pinus radiata.
After protests from environmentalists the exporting of wood chips from indigenous forests was stopped by the government in 1996.
See also Forestry in New Zealand
References
External links Quarterly Wood Chip Statistics at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry The Forestry Mulching Pros