MAF warnings about shoddy ETS advice

The cynics believe Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) are the next ‘gold rush’ – with fortune hunters from all walks of life leaving their regular jobs for easier pickings. No more mule trains, shaggy beards, picks and shovels – the new ‘prospectors’ will more likely be consultants and traders with laptops and a keen eye for a fast buck.

The normally conservative New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has been raising the potential for dishonest practices because of the complexities of the ETS legislation at forums for forest owners and forestry consultants.

'Tribal' culture damages
export business

A Timber Industry Federation member fresh from a sales trip to Vietnam wrote in its newsletter of “a bloody bloodbath”. He was referring to tumbling prices for radiata pine and blamed New Zealand producers for the problem. And it seems the industry’s penchant for self-mutilation in export markets is alive and well – as Peter Harington reports.

Beefed-up softwood a
tropical challenge

Global rejection of unsustainably logged tropical hardwoods and fears of resulting supply issues are driving a rapid expansion of softwood modification technology – as Tony Neilson reports.

The road to commercially viable, environmentally friendly methods of making softwood harder and more durable than tropical hardwoods has been long and is littered with casualties.