About Crown Forestry
Crown Forestry is part of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). It has a commercial focus, managing a portfolio of the Crown's forestry assets to:
- achieve the best return from the forests
- meet the Crown's legal and contractual obligations.
Crown Forestry is a direct participant in the New Zealand forest industry. It has a separate role to the policy, regulation, and service delivery roles carried out by MPI.
Its portfolio includes:
- joint venture forests, funded by the One Billion Trees programme
- forestry leases on Māori land
- Crown-owned forests on Crown land
- forestry leases with other businesses on Crown-owned forest land.
Crown Forestry was created in the early 1990s when the Government proposed selling its forestry leases over Māori land. The Māori lessors wanted to retain direct links with the Minister, so Crown Forestry was formed to administer the leases within the Ministry of Forestry (now MPI).
Crown-owned forests and afforestation leases
The forest estate consists of 55 forests with a total planted area of around 30,000 hectares. The forests are located throughout the North Island and in Otago and Westland.
Crown Forestry's assets also include 6 afforestation leases. This is Crown-owned land leased to other forestry companies. The companies pay annual rent or returns from harvesting to the Crown.
Where appropriate, Crown Forestry explores opportunities to reduce the Crown’s interest in commercial forestry. In the case of Crown-owned land, the land (and sometimes trees) are transferred to successful claimant groups as part of Te Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
The Crown Forestry team
The Crown Forestry team is in Wellington, Rotorua, Masterton, and Kerikeri.
Staff carry out strategic, business and financial planning of the forestry assets. They also conduct modelling and auditing of the assets. The day-to-day management of forestry and harvesting operations is outsourced to forest management companies.
Contact us by email
Other agencies and organisations that also administer Crown forests and land
Toitū Te Whenua – Land Information New Zealand – Crown forest licences or Crown forest licensed land
Te Arawhiti – Te Tiriti/Treaty of Waitangi settlements involving former Crown forests and land
