Small farm foresters in New Zealand fear a financial headache if they have to join the environmental certification process, according to the country’s Dominion newspaper.

A report in the paper quotes the Farm Forestry Association, representing smaller owners, as estimating the cost of certification at up to NZ$3,000, with annual maintenance costs of NZ$500 a year

They have voiced their concerns at a time when New Zealand’s big forestry companies and environmentalists in the country are pressing for more certification.

The large companies see Forest Stewardship Council certification as a valuable marketing tool which could help increase their current NZ$3.7bn worth of timber exports every year. They believe present exports, totalling 18 million m3, could almost double in the next five years.

Certification means forest owners setting aside a proportin of their plantings to be restored to a natural eco-system, while many chemicals used in plantation management are banned immediately or phased out.

The smaller forest owners say the cost is prohibive and would make their businesses untenable. However, the bigger companies now say they are looking at ways to help out.