The Dryland Forests Initiative is seeking more funding to continue its development of a New Zealand-grown hardwood timber industry. Source: Radio New Zealand
The initiative was started in 2003 to cultivate a genetically improved naturally durable eucalypt species for planting on drought prone and erodible pastoral land.
New Zealand has been reliant on pine plantations but pine often requires treatment to ensure durability and this has caused environment concerns due to the chemicals used.
The Dryland Forests Initiative aims to provide untreated hardwood posts for New Zealand industries, and to replace some of the NZ$270 million worth of hardwoods imported each year.
The initiative received a $400,000 boost from the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry sustainable farming fund in 2010.
Chairman Shaf van Ballekom said that it has applied for funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
“We’re pretty confident that out of this will come a really good resource of material that can be used to develop new industries around naturally durable timber,” said Mr van Ballekom.
A lot of work remains to be done on these eucalypt species in terms of selection and breeding.
