Wenita is a long-term land manager and wants to protect the land and environments where our forests grow.
In 2001, Wenita became one of the first New Zealand forestry companies to be certified under the international Forestry Stewardship Council® (FSC) certification scheme and one of the requirements for FSC® certification is to set aside, protect and manage at least 10% of the forest estate for ecological conservation. Given the size of our forest estate, this means we have more than 3000 hectares of ecological conservation land. These important natural areas contain some unique features and diverse habitats such as bogs, fens (a type of wetlands), native forests and areas that provide habitat for rare native fish, birds and plants.
Wenita worked with the Department of Conservation to establish 22 Conservation Covenants and other areas are managed under our own Protected Area Management Plans.
Independent consultants, such as Wildlands and Whirika, help us develop site-specific ecological management plans, undertake ecological assessments and monitoring, and provide operational support to implement effective management interventions, especially in the conservation covenant areas.
Freshwater ecologist Richard Allibone from Waterways Consulting conducts regular fish surveys in our rivers and streams, and his work is used to plan – and minimise the impacts of – our future operations.
Photo: A kāreaera (native falcon) – one of the rare native species that thrives in our forests.