Fast facts about swamp kauri

Opponents of the swamp kauri trade in Northland say log mining is destroying fragile ecosystems and amounts to plunder of a national treasure.

Digger unearthing ancient kauri. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams

The Far North Protection Society says the multi-million dollar trade is not only illegal, it is destroying an entire ecology of wetlands and fragile dune lakes.

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy has defended the regulation of the industry, but Northland Maori leader Dover Samuels is calling for a moratorium while the laws are reviewed.

What is swamp kauri?

• Swamp kauri is timber excavated from the earth in parts of northern New Zealand that were once covered in kauri forests.
• The giant trees were felled in an unexplained act of nature at the end of the last Ice Age, 50,000 years ago.
• Those that were engulfed in peat swamp, which has remained as wetland to the present day, can emerge perfectly preserved and the timber is extremely valuable.

Kauri logs unearthed from peat await sale. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams

Can it be exported?

• Export rules are set out in the Forests Act 1949, administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
• Swamp kauri logs may not be exported, neither whole nor sawn.
• But with MPI approval, stumps, and "stump logs" can be exported as long as the trunk remnant is no longer than the diameter of the tree at ground level.
• Swamp kauri can also be exported as milled timber, from some sources, or as a finished or manufactured object, like a bowl or a carving.

A kauri log carving wrapped in plastic, leaving a warehouse in Awanui for export. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams

So what are the conservationists upset about?

• They say entire wetlands that are supposed to be protected are being destroyed by the swamp kauri mining in the Far North.
• They say the industry is too loosely regulated.
• They allege that entire kauri logs are being shipped to China, not just stumps, and that Customs and MPI are failing to investigate, and enforce the law.
• They say some logs are being lightly engraved, and classed as giant carvings to get around the law.

Lake Ngatu - said to be discoloured by run-off from nearby kauri mining. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams