CLEAN & GREEN?

Queenstown Redwood

“there is strong consumer appeal in Europe for the wood`s New Zealand origins and its designation by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international body, as being from sustainable plantations rather than native forests…Fletcher Forests will have to pioneer other markets and products …it needs to learn how to create high value through strong New Zealand design and branding” says Rod Oram of Fletchers partnership with Danish fur-nature maker Zenia.

In New Zealand we farm pine trees, like wheat or corn. Because New Zealand is a pioneer in plantation forestry, our practices are foreign to many overseas visitors. Their countries still harvest large areas of natural forests for wood fibre (eg North America). Or where natural forests have long been plundered (eg metropolitan Asia), import wood from developing countries who are only now in full plunder mode.

To assist consumers in countries that import their wood fibre make sustainable purchase decisions, the Forest Stewardship Council was set up in 1993. It’s a voluntary labeling system relying on the free market to sort out the woods from the trees.

The FSC label provides a credible link between responsible production and consumption of forest products, enabling consumers and businesses to make purchasing decisions that benefit people and the environment as well as providing ongoing business value.

But New Zealand is a sustainable world leader in that almost all of our wood fibre needs are supplied from plantations established for that purpose, ie, tree farms.

These forests cover an area of 1.8 million hectares and produce over 99% of the country’s wood.

says Treasury. In fact, we generate a vast surplus of sustainably produced wood and paper products and are able to export this to other countries. We thereby save a few of someone else’s natural forests.

Getting the word out on our world-leading environmentally friendly timber production as  part of a Green Brand New Zealand strategy would be the best support possible for the job Fletchers is challenged withby Oram.

Tags: 100% Pure New Zealand, clean & green, clean & green NZ, Clean and Green, clean and green NZ, fletcher, fletcher forests, Kaitiakitanga, 永続可能森林

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 7:17 pm and is filed under 100% Pure New Zealand, Clean & Green, Forestry, Kaitiakitanga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.