Tougher measures for extraction and export of swamp kauri

Ruakaka swamp kauri stockpile.

Tougher measures are to be introduced to monitor to the extraction and export of swamp kauri.

The Minister of Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, today announced operational changes to improve the transparency, clarity and enforcement of rules to help manage the milling and export of kauri stumps.

The move follows concerns raised by environmentalists and iwi about the damage extraction caused to fragile ecologies and the off-shore sales of a natural resource under flimsy descriptions to fit into export rules.

Those concerns included lengths of millable swamp kauri attached to the root system being called "stumps" -- stumps being the only legally exportable part of swamp kauri -- and the superficial carving of slabs then exported under the guise of "artworks".

Northland Regional Council chairman Bill Shepherd has welcomed the moves which will require a paper trail from pre-extraction to export, and at stages between.

Through the Resource Management Act, the NRC has been responsible only when extraction could damage protected species or wetlands.

Operators will now have to notify NRC of all extraction activities, and a Northland-based MPI forestry officer will visit all sites as part of a milling statement approval process.