Anton Sveding: "Creating a public forest consciousness: Timber famine and forestry propaganda in interwar New Zealand"

Abstract

The largescale deforestation of New Zealand following British colonisation in 1840 sparked fears of a timber famine – a shortage of wood. To prevent a timber famine, and stop further deforestation, forestry advocates and professional foresters in interwar New Zealand embarked on a campaign to create a public forest consciousness. This encompassed a public support for scientific forest management and a public appreciation of forests, both from a utilitarian and aesthetical standpoint. This paper examines the means, methods, and work of the conservation organisation the New Zealand Forestry League and the New Zealand State Forest Service to foster a public forest consciousness.

Illustration:

'If some M.'sP. Had Their Way -,' Forest Magazine (New Zealand Out-of-Doors) 1, no. 3 (1922): 87. Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.