The forestry and wood processing sector is a major industry in Marlborough. That’s why Marlborough District Council (MDC) chose it as the first industry for the Smart+Connected economic development programme back in 2014.
After its establishment, the Smart+Connected Wood Sector Group achieved some good successes. They led a project to forecast forestry harvest in the Marlborough Sounds, which allowed MDC to plan its roading maintanance and upgrade programmes to support these harvesting activities.
But in 2018, the Group decided to break for several months to focus on the implementation of the National Environment Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF).
The Smart+Connected approach has evolved substantially since the Wood Sector Group was established in 2014. Since then, we’ve seen the value of strong Working Groups focused on specific projects and action areas.
Fast forward to 2019 and the NES-PF are being widely implemented in the industry. MDC and relevant organisations such as the Marlborough Forestry Industry Association (MFIA) took the opportunity to refocus and re-energise the Forestry and Wood Sector Programme.
At the same time, international log prices took a nosedive. This provided another incentive for the Marlborough forestry sector to rethink their dependence on the global commodity market for logs.
Our approach to refreshing this existing collaborative group
We began by supporting MDC to establish an Oversight Group. We worked with the Group to plan an Engagement Event, with a keynote speaker who could highlight the pitfalls of high levels of dependence on log exports and the need for a more future-proofed approach. We tapped into the networks of the Oversight Group to promote the event across the region, and we put a lot of effort into ensuring the sector’s emerging talent knew about the event.
As a rule, the forestry sector in Marlborough does not lean naturally to collaboration or vertical integration. Compared to other regions in New Zealand, Marlborough has a far higher percentage of small private forestry block owners. In spite of this, we were encouraged to see a strong cross-section of over 60 representatives at the engagement event.
At the event we ran a workshop to identify some shared priorities for the industry sector and begin the process of reformulating a vision for the sector.
But the sector needed more than just another nicely worded vision statement. They needed to take action together.
An implementation event to get hands-on
Our engagement approach is all about helping people to move from ideas to action. We view engagement as a way to improve implementation.
Aligned with this thinking, we facilitated an Implementation Workshop two weeks after the main Engagement Event. This was open to anybody who wanted to get hands-on in implementing solutions to the shared priorities identified. Close to 30 forestry and wood sector representatives convened for the implementation workshop which was hosted by Port Marlborough.
Through this process, we helped them to narrow the priorities to just two:
Becoming a positive industry for Marlborough
Adding value to local logs.
The result: a structure for working together
An energised new Steering Group is now in place. It includes sector leaders, emerging talent and sector partners who can oversee the next phase of the Marlborough Smart+Connected Forestry and Wood Sector Programme. The Steering Group will oversee two active Working Groups (one for each priority area), with over 20 sector representatives committed to these projects.
How do we evaluate the success of the refresh?
For a collective impact programme like this, we look at the number and quality of people getting involved in making things happen. In this case, there is now a clear structure and focus for a diverse group of forestry and wood sector representatives to work together. They are now well placed to continue adding value to Marlborough’s unique Smart+Connected programme.
This builds on what a larger body of work through the Marlborough Smart+Connected programe. 0.5% of Marlborough’s population is actively contributing through a Steering Group or Working Group to the opportunities that matter most to them, their communities and their industries.
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