Back to the Future – Pastoral Land Use in a Forest Land – Sustainability Challenges for the 21^st Century

Back to the Future – Pastoral Land Use in a Forest Land – Sustainability Challenges for the 21^st Century

To contribute meaningfully to a session entitled “Deforestation” with a proposed paper title of “Trees in Pastoral Zones; Landuse Standards in the 21^st Century” necessitates I carefully define the scope of my contribution. My paper will draw on my experiences as an ecologist working in the pastoral lands of New Zealand in roles that have led me to delve increasingly into what constitutes sustainability (of people, land and economy) for a tiny multicultural nation maturing amidst the remnants of a unique Gondwanaland ecosystem. As New Zealand’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) I now examine a very wide range of issues associated with the New Zealand environment and its management. I will therefore approach the topic of deforestation by focusing almost exclusively on the New Zealand story; a story of a forested land that has had the most rapid conversion to pasture of any such land on this planet so the focus will be not on trees in a pastoral zone but on pasture in a formerly forested land. I will draw on some of my current work as PCE, with a focus on our history, tends and emerging themes.