Woodchipping in New Zealand

Woodchipping in New Zealand is one of the sectors of the forestry industry and it attracted controversy in the 1990s when native trees were used as a source for the chipping.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry collates figures on quantities of wood chip exports.

With European settlement in the 19th century, large areas were cleared for pastoral farming and for logging.

The export wood chip industry was the main cause of forest clearance on private land after 1970.

[2] After protests from environmentalists the exporting of wood chips from indigenous forests was stopped by the government in 1996.