Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti

Following 2023's devastating cyclones, on top of dozens of serious weather events in recent years, the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use (MILU) produced a set of 49 recommendations that were met with a disapointing initial response in August 2023 from the Labour government. Since the new coalition Government has been in power it seems the issues in Tairāwhiti have not been a priority. While land use rules were not in the Government's 100 Day Plan - other than relaxing environmental protections (aka "red-tape") for farmers - there were assurances that a response to the MILU recommendations would come after the 100 days were up. The communities of Tairāwhiti and Wairoa are still waiting.

"Pick Up Sticks" Funding Inadequate

In addition to the "pick up sticks" funding to help with woody debris and silt removal following 2023's cyclones, in June 2024 the Government announced funding for catchment groups around the country, including three in Tairāwhiti. How and why those catchments were chosen remains a mystery, but it's a start!

A response by National's East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick to enquiries from our local environmental advocacy organisation Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti on where the Government is at, was also provided in June 2024 and suggests both politicians and officials don't seem to be moving with any urgency. These were comments that the MP passed on from Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) officials:

"There is still a lot of work to be completed before we jump to mechanisms for land use transition. The first step and arguably most important is to identify and quantify the potentially highest eroding land (i.e., 'purple zone' or 'overlay 3b'). This requires a very sound science-based methodology - and there are a number of organisations including Gisborne District Council (GDC), Crown Research Institutes, MPI, etc working in this space. Once this is understood we get a much better grasp on the magnitude of the issue and where and with whom the risk may lie. This then enters us into the 'how do we transition and what considerations' piece".

Dana Kirkpatrick continued: "There are now significant releases on forestry which I have added in as attachments. Please let me know if you need anything further on these. Apparently, there will be a 'summit' to discuss further the issues in Tairāwhiti and I believe Trust Tairāwhiti are involved in this. There have also been changes in land use categories in the agriculture policy space. Initiatives will include:

1. working with the industry to increase onshore wood processing
2. opening new and improving access to existing trading markets
3. supporting sensible planting
4. easing burdensome regulations
5. enabling and supporting the development of new and innovative wood products
6. adjusting investment settings
7. supporting New Zealand's climate change goals".

How any of that, depending on what they mean by "sensible planting", helps with transitioning erosion-prone land use to truly sustainable land management is difficult to understand. She said the Government has already: "Launched an independent review of the operational costs of the forestry component in the emissions trading scheme (ETS)" and "announced the repeal of legislation requiring the registration of log traders and forestry advisers". Again, how these initiatives help with land use transition is confusing given the main policy change to date was to relieve commercial tree plantations of their annual ETS registration fees, which just incentivises the sector to plant more Pinus radiata.

Like all Governments, this one has a lot of aspirational slogans with no detail and Ms Kirkpatrick says "the Government's vision to grow the forestry sector includes:

• Spurring economic growth through jobs and exports;
• Delivering low emission solutions and products;
• Supporting land use resilience, adaptation, biodiversity & social benefits; and
• Providing carbon removals to support climate goals".

To show just how little this Government understands about the issues, the response concludes with this tone- deaf summary:

"It has taken some time to get to the forestry piece as there have been so many balls in the air but I think we all agree we need to better understand the complete picture including policy, consenting, harvesting, land use and what it looks like going forward. We know that forestry plays an enormous part in our regional community and we need it. But we also know we need to address the issues and not end up back in this space in a cyclone in another 25 years' time".

So, it seems Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti will need to ramp up our campaign for local and central government to get serious about the urgent need for a realistic transition plan for the region - to wean ourselves off unsustainable pasture and pine and into permanent indigenous forest that can hold the fragile soils on steep slopes and soft geology that comprises 88% of the region.

Forestry TNC Ernslaw One Decertified

In February 2024 we had the release of reports by global assurance company ASI that in November 2023 reviewed Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification audits by SGS and Better By Nature of pine plantations in Tairāwhiti. These auditors had approved Ernslaw One (2004 Roger Award finalist for Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand) and PF Olsen (NZ-owned plantation management company) to retain their FSC certification, despite being successfully prosecuted by Gisborne District Council in court cases begun in 2018. Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti had made enquiries with FSC about how the companies retained their FSC certificates given the prosecutions.

The ASI auditor sent from Canada spent two weeks in Tairāwhiti meeting with Ernslaw One and PF Olsen representatives, GDC compliance staff and local community residents as well as visiting the harvest sites that had been audited. An FSC manager from Australia also participated and both described what they saw in Tairāwhiti as the worst situation they had seen anywhere in the world - and they have investigated hundreds of harvesting operations across Africa, Asia and America.

In early February 2024 FSC certification for Ernslaw One (owned by the Callander Group Limited, a shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands with Malaysian owners, that is also interested in property development in New Zealand via the Neil Group) was suspended, including more than 95,000 hectares of forests and all other Ernslaw One operations in New Zealand - Gisborne, plus the South Island. That is a big decision, because not only is it the round logs going out of Gisborne, it is the chip supply to their Karioi pulp mill in the South Island, so it means the production of FSC certified paper products has also been suspended. Ernslaw One appealed that decision.

Damning Report; Auditors Reprimanded

In late February 2024 ASI (the auditor of the auditors) reprimanded the audit company SGS - which did audits on Ernslaw One and other forests in NZ for FSC certification. The damning report found four "major non-conformities" in the way East Coast forests were granted a stamp of environmental stewardship, despite "compelling evidence" of problems.

RNZ reporter Eloise Gibson summarised the report as follows:

"The problems found with SGS include 'failing to visit sufficient sites or to interview sufficient stakeholders and experts or to review relevant documents in four surveillance audits in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022'. SGS also failed to rotate the staff member carrying out compliance visits, with the same person making five audits in a row. The maximum was meant to be three, to ensure the checks remain impartial".

"A theme of the audit was failures to read documents or interview people who might have shown the forests didn't comply. ASI said, by the time the 2022 audit came around, Ernslaw One had been convicted on charges involving its forestry operations in Gisborne - but SGS didn't follow up this information".

"The non-compliant practices were clearly outlined in a publicly available written judicial decision....and described in news stories. '(SGS) did not follow-up this compelling evidence of non-conformance, and did not visit any sites in the Gisborne Region in the 2022 audit', ASI's report said".

"The report also said SGS also didn't visit Ernslaw One's Gisborne forests in 2019, despite much of the area being at high risk of landslides. 'The region is well known as one of the most erosion-prone landscapes on Earth and rivers in the region carry some of the highest sediment loads recorded anywhere', it said".

"'(SGS) carried out very limited sampling of sites in the three other audits - 2018, 2020, 2021 - following the June 2018 storm', the report said. 'By 2019, the charges laid by the Gisborne District Council against (Ernslaw One) were public information', it added. ASI noted SGS had several documents available that might have shown non-compliance, including a 2017 Gisborne Council investigation into forestry slash and court and newspaper reports from 2022".

Documents Not Reviewed; "Horrendous" Safety Record

"'There is no indication in any of the audit reports that any of these documents were reviewed', the audit said. 'Based on interviews conducted by ASI, (SGS) did not interview any of the Gisborne District Council compliance and enforcement officials or legal counsel involved'. On work safety, ASI said SGS failed to detect any non-conformity with the rules in 2019, after a worker was killed and Ernslaw One was convicted and fined over workplace safety".

"According to ASI: 'In the 2020 audit report... (SGS) presented a table that identifies five forestry fatalities over a four-year period 2016/2017 to 2019/2020. All these fatalities occurred....in the Gisborne (management area). By any objective measure, four fatalities in five years are an excessively high number of fatalities in a relatively small operation and represents a very high frequency ....'".

"The safety record was described to ASI by the current (Ernslaw One) Health and Safety manager as 'horrendous - the worst in New Zealand' and far higher than industry norms'. ASI said SGS failed to follow up on this - though it also noted Ernslaw One had carried out safety reforms since then".

In May 2024, the same ASI auditor returned from Canada to review the audits for Juken New Zealand, winner of the 2003 Roger Award and owned by Wood One Co. Ltd, headquartered in Japan. He also investigated the audits of Aratu (previously called Hikurangi Forest Farms, now owned by shareholders based in Australia, Canada and the US) which were mostly more of the same, "with some nuances and different levels of performance. But the issues of the steep slopes, large clearcuts, erosion and affected stakeholders downstream exist to varying degrees for all the various certification holders".

So, as the community awaits the outcomes of these audit reviews, we hope ASI includes some additional recommendations for land use in the region and perhaps one day the officials and politicians will do something to regulate not only pine plantations but also pastoral farms that have created so much damage in the region over the past century.

Watchdog - 166 August 2024