A second opinion on the Conference

The 2009 New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) conference focuses on climate change, and presents several other presentations on the nature of social values, uses of forests and on experimental design for evaluating the threats of burning the grasslands during recreational vehicle use. The conference underlines that the establishment and use of well managed forests can be justified by the necessity to meet increasing needs of humans. A number of the conference papers were presented that focused on addressing or coping with the variations in the natural climate or in the changing political and economic climate. The conference emphasizes that policy makers, economists and political commentators need to evaluate their actions in terms of the potential to increase plantation establishment or to increase the substitution of non-wood based products with wood based ones. He believes that New Zealand foresters must ensure no one evaluates a policy, economic or political option in terms of reducing de-forestation or restricting actions on plantations.