A Social Assessment of Community Response to Forest Policy Change in South Westland, New Zealand

Abstract

Studies of closures illustrate that the removal of a core industry tends to have detrimental impacts on the local dependent communities. This ex post study examined the effects of the cessation of logging in old-growth forests on two small resource-dependent communities on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand. Data analysis, incorporating webbing and chaining, revealed shifts in patterns of work and social organization that could not be fully understood by examining changes in the forestry sector alone. Growth in tourism and changes to farming practices have contributed to the ability of these communities to mitigate forest industry loss and community decline. In this study, attempting to separate specific effects from wider social change processes would have been counterproductive to sound social impact assessment practice. This research demonstrates the need for interpreting change processes within their wider social, economic, and historic locales.