02 May 2011
Nearly 300 forestry professionals from nearly 20 countries are meeting at Sky City, Auckland for the seventh combined conference of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry and the Institute of Foresters of Australia. The ANZIF 2011 conference theme is Pacific Forestry – Growing a Forestry Future and is being held during the United Nations Year of Forests. These conferences, which are held every four years, normally attract members from just the two institutes, but this year, being the United Nations International Year of Forests, a special effort was made to attract forestry professionals from around the Pacific. This follows on from recommendations from the Commonwealth Forestry Conference in Edinburgh last year that professional forestry associations should make an effort to reach out to those professionals in small developing countries that have no such associations.NZIF has been assisted in bringing delegates from Pacific nations to Auckland by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, the UK based Commonwealth Foundation and the New Zealand and Australian governments. “There is no way that NZIF, an organisation funded only by its annual member subscriptions, could have provided financial assistance to delegates without the generosity of these sponsors,” said Dr Andrew McEwen, the institute’s president.
The conference starts today with a formal Maori welcome, followed by the official opening by Sir Tumu Te Heuheu, paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa.
“We invited Sir Tumu because wanted to recognise the increasing importance of Maori in New Zealand forestry,” said Dr McEwen.
The conference will be addressed by Ms Jan McAlpine, director of the United Nations Forum on Forests on The state of the world’s forests with particular reference to forestry in the Pacific Region, their potential contribution and future role. Other key note speakers are:
- Mr Chris Tennent-Brown of ASB: The Pacific economy, influence and role in a global environment.
- Mr Jim Carle, Programme Director of FAO, Rome: Forestry development in the smaller and developing economies with a focus on the Pacific Islands and States.
- Dr Andy Buchanan, Canterbury University Faculty of Engineering: The Christchurch Earthquake, is there a Wood-based Solution?
- Mr Paul Stocks, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry: A review of the Kyoto Protocol and implications for forestry and wood products.
- Dr Sadanandan Nambier, former Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO, Australia Forestry for social development: are we making a difference?
- Mr Dick Adams MP, Chair of the Australian Forest Review: Are forestry practices meeting community expectations, what are we doing, what should we be doing, how do we keep on side with local communities?
“I hope that those at the conference will learn more about forestry in our neighbouring countries and to understand some of the issues forestry faces and that we can find ways to deal with some of those issues,” said Dr McEwen.
The conference dinner will hear from NZ Minister of Forestry Hon David Carter who will also present the prestigious 2011 NZIF Forester of the Year award.
Source: Conference organising committee media release