A couple of months ago we learned that miners were destroying Northland's wetlands to dig up kauri for export, possibly in violation of the law. So how big is this kauri rush? According to MPI, it has grown by 2500 percent in just five years:
The true extent of swamp kauri being sent overseas has been revealed - with exports jumping by more than 2500 per cent in five years.
[...]
In 2009, 173 cubic metres of swamp kauri was legally exported. That increased to 1150 cubic metres in 2013, before sky-rocketing to 4356 cubic metres last year.
About 800 cubic metres have been sent offshore so far this year.
One company, Silver Fern Resource Trading, sent 1810 cubic metres last year - all to China.
So, our wetlands are being devastated so rich Chinese businessmen can have a fancy table. Of course, its illegal - the Forests Act 1949 prohibits the export of unfinished timber, and the "carvings" and slabs they are exporting don't really qualify (seriously, just look at the photos in that article. Do you really think that that "carving" is for real, or is it just there to allow a raw log to be exported and re-milled into something else?) These vandals are simply pillaging New Zealand - and MPI needs to enforce the law and stop them, rather than turning a blind eye.
