Planting forests for the future
A $25.5m programme hoping to help solve an industry's labour woes
Anew $25.5 million programme aims to address the forestry industry’s labour shortage by using technology to plant more trees in less time while also extending planting seasons.
The programme is a seven-year partnership between the Ministry for Primary Industries, forest growers, technology companies and forestry contractors.
The industry partners have pledged $15.3m to the programme while the Government will contribute $10.2m.
Forestry Minister Stuart Nash was in Rotorua yesterday to formally launch the initiative.
“We’re investing in forestry in a way we have never done before,” Nash said in his speech to launch attendees.
The funding will go towards developing drones, robotics and digital technology to follow each tree from seed to harvest, allowing growers to get more trees with better quality timber in less time and with less manual labour.
At the programme’s launch, attendees were shown how a drone could identify and count each tree, track a tree’s growth over time and monitor factors such as soil quality and pests.
Later, Nash told the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend the programme would help to build a highwage, low-emission economy and increase the forestry industry’s production.
“Forestry is taking on a whole new importance,” Nash said.
“Let me give you one example, in Government procurement we’ve mandated that every building the Government builds over $9m, which is almost everything, has to be built from the lowest-carbon material.
“Basically you have to build out of wood.”
Forest Growers Research harvesting programme leader Keith Raymond said jobs in the industry were hard work for low productivity and came at a high cost.
“One of the big challenges at the moment is the shortage of skilled labour,” Raymond said. “One of the ways in which the industry can address the shortage is through mechanisation.”
But Raymond said using robots and drones would not mean fewer job opportunities for human workers.
“A lot of young people don’t want to do hard manual labour,” he said. “They want to get into the technology so [the programme] is going to attract younger people to the industry with different kinds of jobs.”
Nash said, “It’s about creating jobs in the community. The jobs that are going to come out of this are quite different.
“It’s going to create jobs in the regions which is really cool.”
Nash said the Government believed New Zealand could have a global competitive advantage in the forestry industry if productivity could be lifted.
“This programme has the potential to deliver about half a billion dollars worth of benefit.”
Forest Growers Research research and development director Paul Adams said the programme would also bridge the gap between research and practical applications of science.
“There hasn’t been much change in the ways we [grow forests],” Adams said. “We still plant the trees the same way. These practices rely on skilled manual workers and we all know we’ve currently got limitations with the supply of good workers. We’re at a point now where we’ve got a programme to really bring automation, robotics and digital technology into our industry.”
Adams said the innovations over the next seven years would
have a “transformational impact”.