Gisborne / East Coast field research on attitudes to land use change : an analysis of impediments to forest sector development

Abstract

As a component of research into ""Socio-economic Adaptations to Emerging Markets"", an ethnographic field study into community attitudes to change in land use from farming to forestry has been undertaken. This study was conducted in the Gisborne and East Coast region of New Zealand from early May until late September 2000. During this study there was exposure to the multiple issues and opinions that surround forest sector development in the area. There is a very high recognition of the role of forestry as a growing industry in the region. However, the community as a whole does not uniformly support forest sector development. The focus of this report is on impediments to forest sector development. These include widely held beliefs from within the region that the community, workforce, infrastructures and land may not be able to fully support or benefit from the predicted industry growth.