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Story: Exotic forestry

Sale of Crown forests

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Sale of Crown forests

This 1989 cartoon expresses the unease felt by many when the government decided to sell off its plantation forests. Sales began the following year and 22 forests, a total of 135,622 hectares, fetched over $588 billion.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Reference: Reg J. Birchfield and Ian F. Grant, Out of the woods: the restructuring and sale of New Zealand's state forests. Wellington: GP Publications, 1993

by Peter Bromhead

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How to cite this page

Michael Roche, Exotic forestry – Government restructuring, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/16611/sale-of-crown-forests (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Michael Roche, published 1 March 2009.