Forest and rural fire management – are we on the right track?

Authors: Murray Dudfield
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2024, Issue N.Z.J.For. 68(4) 2024, pp Pages 3 - 7, Feb 2024
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: The New Zealand Government’s 2017 reform of the rural fire services and the NZ Fire Service into a new national body – Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) – is failing to deliver the anticipated gains and efficiencies. From a forest and rural landscape perspective, this new structure had replaced a decentralised regulatory model for managing fire in the forest and rural landscape that had been in place for more than 70 years. While this decentralised structure had some known shortfalls, if well supported, it was a framework that delivered cost-effective outputs and outcomes. For instance, the annual area burnt from wildfires in the forest and rural landscape was trending downwards over the last 15 years it was in place. One additional concern is that the annual reporting outputs for FENZ are poorly defined, so measuring whether the new structure is giving good value for money is difficult. The last five years have also seen a significant increase in the area burnt by unwanted wildfires, despite the La Nina weather patterns of the previous three years producing lower-than-average fire danger levels. Had the urban and rural fire services merger in July 2017 not occurred, it is suggested that New Zealand fire levy payers would now be better off by more than $250 million annually. Also, the accountability for the governance and management of fire in the forest and rural landscape would have remained with local/regional forest and rural stakeholders for a total annual cost of less than $35 million.

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