It is widely acknowledged that having more trees planted is not only good for protecting steep hills from erosion and keeping streams clean and free of farm run-off pollution, but that it is one of the lowest-cost ways greenhouse gas emitters can meet their medium and longer-term emission liabilities under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
READ MOREThe first three months of the year have been very busy registering post-1989 clients into the ETS. This has enabled them to submit an emissions return by the 31 March 2010.
READ MOREMAF has recently advised of new tentative dates for pre-1990 forest land owners to apply for their partial compensation/free allocation of credits - June 2010 to June 2011.
READ MOREOne of several changes MAF is proposing to the ETS is to change the sequestration rates for indigenous forests from the 3t CO2/ha/year (each and every year) to rates that vary each year, and are higher overall.
READ MOREPF Olsen's chief safety initiative for 2010, and one that has been written into our 2010 Business Plan, is a series of Leadership in Management seminars.
READ MOREThe strong run in China is taking a breather. Stocks of Radiata, North American and Russian logs are high (more than two months). There are also high inventories of Canadian and Russian lumber.
READ MOREAs physically remote countries, the quality of New Zealand and Australia's international supply chains have a significant impact on the ability of companies to compete in global markets.
READ MOREOver the past six months, eight PF Olsen-managed logging contractor business owners have been putting in the hours as part of a new program aimed at encouraging owners to work "on their business" and not "in it".
READ MORERecently returned from his "OE" Jacob (Jake) Saathof joined PF Olsen in February taking a role managing road-line harvesting and engineering in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region.
READ MOREWelcome to the first edition of Wood Matters for 2010.
READ MORE2010 has started well with recovery of house construction starts in NZ and Australia now inevitable. Both countries face a catch-up from low building activity in 2009 plus increased immigration. Meanwhile China's infrastructure boom has kept up demand for export logs.
READ MOREJanuary started with twelve regional Safe-Start events all across New Zealand (from Winton to Kaitaia).
READ MOREThank you to those that have engaged PF Olsen to process their applications for post-1989 and pre-1990 forest land.
READ MOREWith the relative certainty of the NZ Emission's Trading Scheme (especially in comparison to the failed Kevin Rudd-backed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) legislation), there is growing activity in the market. Nigel Brunel of OM Financial gave a "conservative" estimate that about 1 million tonnes of New Zealand Carbon traded for between NZ$20-NZ$21 per tonne in January.
READ MOREJanuary and February saw increases in log prices both from export logs and domestic logs (pruned and structural). There are strong indications that export prices will lift again in March. The A-grade price is currently over 100/JAS m³ at main NZ ports and is forecast lift by 10% in March.
READ MORERecent staff developments have resulted in one secondment to Malaysia and three new appointments:
READ MOREWelcome to Wood Matters last issue for the year.
READ MOREAs forecast by many commentators in advance of the COP15 Copenhagen Climate Change conference, there is no new international binding agreement to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol yet. Work on that will continue during 2010 leading up to COP16 in Mexico in November.
READ MOREMAF held an informative workshop for PF Olsen to assist us with understanding the Emissions Trading Scheme for forestry. One part of the workshop was "How to define forest land".
READ MOREOn November 20th, the Silver Lake set sail from Port Chalmers with a load of PF Olsen client logs destined for China.
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