The Government is stepping directly into the increasingly tense battle over forestry regulation in Tairāwhiti, appointing an independent facilitator as Gisborne District Council pushes for stronger controls on erosion, sediment and forestry slash.
Forestry Minister Todd McClay has appointed former Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair Doug Leeder to work with the council, its independent assurance review panel and other stakeholders.
Leeder will advise McClay and other ministers on whether further government support or intervention is needed and on the complex issues surrounding forestry consenting and land-use change.
The appointment follows growing concern from the forestry sector about Gisborne District Council’s regulatory approach, including draft enforcement orders covering woody debris and sediment.
The Government accepts stronger compliance measures may be needed but says they must be workable and proportionate, while allowing the region to transition vulnerable land into more appropriate uses.
But the intervention comes against a much wider dispute over who should control forestry rules in a region still carrying the scars of Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop recently declined Gisborne District Council’s application for an exemption that would have allowed it to progress Sustainable Land Use Plan Change 7.
The proposed plan change was designed to strengthen management of erosion-prone land and support more resilient land use across Tairāwhiti. The council applied for the exemption in December 2025 and waited around seven months for the Government’s decision.
The council says the rejection does not remove the underlying problem. Erosion, sediment loss and increasingly severe weather continue to threaten communities, waterways and whenua across the rohe.
Tairāwhiti contains some of the country’s most erosion-prone whenua, making the future of plantation forestry and land use a major environmental, economic and community issue.
The Government argues national forestry rules provide a more consistent approach, while the council has maintained that the particular conditions in Tairāwhiti require stronger responses.
Gisborne District Council has now launched its own independent review of forestry consenting and compliance, chaired by former Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson KC and including environmental and resource management specialist Dr Marie Doole.
That review will test whether council requirements are proportionate to environmental risk, whether consent conditions are practical, and whether processes can be improved without weakening environmental protection. Initial findings are expected within six weeks of the panel’s formal appointment.
Meanwhile, environmental groups have accused the Government of moving in the wrong direction.
Greenpeace has strongly opposed changes to national commercial forestry rules which restrict councils’ ability to impose tougher local controls over plantation forestry, slash and erosion.
It says communities in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay have already paid a huge price for forestry debris and sediment coming off vulnerable hillsides during severe weather.
Greenpeace argues councils should have greater power to protect communities, waterways and whenua rather than having their ability to impose stronger local rules restricted.
The Government points to the Tairāwhiti Forestry Action Group as evidence that cooperation can deliver results.
Established in 2024, the group has reduced risk across 173 kilometres of river network and removed almost 40,000 cubic metres of woody debris from high-risk locations. Its next phase will include work on legacy woody biomass, consenting and future land-use decisions.
The competing moves leave Tairāwhiti at the centre of a major debate over forestry’s future.
For whānau, iwi and communities living beneath erosion-prone hillsides and alongside rivers and coastlines, the issue is not simply about regulation or forestry investment. It is about who carries the risk when the whenua moves, where the slash ends up when major storms arrive, and how Tairāwhiti builds a safer and more resilient future.
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