PGP Steepland Harvesting - a collaborative research and development programme

Authors: Keith Raymond
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2018, Issue N.Z.J.For. 63(3) 2018, pp 18-21, Nov 2018
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: This paper is an overview of the collaborative forestry research and development (R&D) programme called Steepland Harvesting which started in 2010 and was completed in September last year. This overview was presented to the NZ Institute of Forestry conference in Nelson on 10 July 2018. Introduction Since 2007, the forest industry’s R&D effort has been coordinated by an industry research company, Future Forests Research (FFR). In 2016 FFR changed its name to Forest Growers Research (FGR) to align more closely with the Forest Growers Levy Trust, the principal industry funder of forest growing and harvesting research since the commodity levy was introduced in 2014. In 2018, out of the $8.8 million of levy funding, over 60% was allocated to research, science and technology programmes (totalling over $5.4 million). FGR’s overall R&D aspirations are to improve profitability, create value and enhance sustainability. The aim is to improve forestry as a sustainable, profitable and internationally competitive sector for the economic and social benefit of New Zealand as a whole. In addition to long-term programmes managed by Scion and funded by both the levy and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), there are two R&D partnerships at FGR: the Harvesting and Logistics Programme and the Specialty Wood Products Partnership. When it was formed in 2007, FFR created the Harvesting and Logistics Programme through a recognition by the industry of the need to address the main issues confronting forestry at the time - and to a large extent still face forestry today. The drivers for a major R&D effort in harvesting were the needs to address:

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