“You know, we’re doing something different. We’re doing large set asides, we’re passionate about biodiversity and different species. We’ve got nothing to hide. We’re an open book.
“We don’t need to wave the flag how great we are, but we like to think we’re a good neighbour, and we communicate well,” Meredith said.
He also addressed concerns about job and community losses, saying Ikea was employing locals for planting and pruning, and on many properties had subdivided off farmland and houses to keep people living in the area.
Since August 2021, Ikea’s parent company Ingka Investments has been buying farmland to convert to forestry, and existing forestry blocks around New Zealand as part of Ikea’s sustainability strategy.Ikea owns 500,000ha of forests around the world, and 43,000ha in New Zealand.In Central Hawke’s Bay, Ikea has converted six farms into trees since 2021, which it believes makes it the largest forestry owner in the district.More than 1.8 million hectares of New Zealand is planted in pine trees with many farms having been converted since 2008 to earn carbon credits after the Emissions Trading Scheme was introduced.However, Ikea told RNZ none of its trees have been planted for carbon credits, although they may look at “some form of offsetting in the future”.
The first block on the tour is about 15 minutes from Waipukurau, where Ikea bought 850ha in 2025.
The forestry site borders a large wetland swamp area, and forest manager Blake Jones told RNZ they were investing in the wetland and also creating a 10ha “setback” of native trees.
“The long-term vision is to have this whole wetland… planted on the boundaries right around it and have it as a beautiful wetland that serves as a bit of a bit of a sink for this whole catchment.
Blake Jones, one of Ikea’s forestry managers in NZ. Photo / Alexa Cook, RNZ
“You’ve just got nutrients, sediment, water retention… the wetland serves as a bit of a filter for the environment,” he said.
Further down the road is a 650ha block of two-year-old pine trees near Wallingford Station.
Ingka Investments forestland country manager Kelvin Meredith said the company has subdivided off some of the best farmland and buildings.
“We try and keep, in a lot of situations like this property, 100ha that the farm owner still owns.
“Wallingford Station, he owned a big chunk of land and he’s still there, his family’s still there.
“We’ve subdivided off and kept the houses, another young family’s moved in. Their kids are going to the local schools.
“A lot of the angst that’s been created is that we shift the profile of the community – the rhetoric is we destroy the community. We don’t. We change a little bit of the dynamic,” he said.
Ingka Investments forestland operations manager Dylan Foster said the company has invested in growing timber in New Zealand because it’s stable, safe and low corruption, and has well researched production capacity for commercial forestry.
When asked if Ikea planned to convert more farmland to forestry, Foster said that was not its strategy as Ikea needed a variation of different tree ages in its portfolio.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a plan to… I think if the right farm came up, we’d definitely look at, but I can say the focus is more actually on standing forests, just to mix our age class up,” he said.
Of the 42,705ha of land bought by Ikea in New Zealand, 23,838ha was converted from farmland to forestry, while 17,175ha was existing forestry. And of the total estate, 31,500ha is productive forestry and the rest is in set asides which include riparian, indigenous vegetation, and roading.
Foster said 60% of the timber would end up on the export market to China, India or Korea, while the other 40% goes to domestic markets.
‘We are not anti-forestry’
There is no nationwide database showing who owns what land and if its use has changed, so several years ago Beef and Lamb New Zealand began monitoring whole farm sales for conversion to forestry.
The organisation said at least 300,000 hectares of sheep and beef was sold to forestry interests since 2017.
“Our big concerns are the scale and the pace of change,” Beef and Lamb spokesperson Julian Ashby said.
“We are not anti-forestry. We really believe forestry has a legitimate place in New Zealand’s landscape, but that issue is we are seeing whole farm conversions really change the face of New Zealand at a dramatic pace.
“You’re not just losing your farmland to grass, you are losing stock numbers, jobs, local spending, processing throughput, full roles, you know, rural services – everything is up for grabs in this kind of current policy incentives that we have.”
Ikea said under its business model, that was not the case.
Meredith told RNZ it employed 250 staff across its New Zealand forestry operations, but during planting programmes that increased to about 800 people.
“There’s obviously quite intense around planting for a few years. So planting, coming back to release them. There’s a little quiet period for about two years and then we start into a pruning phase.
“We’ll be pruning for the next 10 to 12 years,” he said.
Ingka Investments Forestland country manager Kelvin Meredith.
The Climate Change Commission estimates another 900,000ha of New Zealand will be converted to forestry by 2050, which Beef and Lamb said will cull roughly 20% of current livestock numbers.
“We have just come out with a report through BERL that looks at the sheep and beef economic impact.
“It’s roughly $50 billion of money that is flowing through the economy from the sheep and beef sector… 120,000 jobs.
“A 20% decrease would have a significant impact on the New Zealand economy,” he said.
FENZ fire levy under review
Fire risk is a growing concern for rural communities, especially after a blaze ripped through 240ha of IKEA forestry near Porangahau last year.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand is primarily funded through the Fire and Emergency levy, which is collected on contracts of fire insurance.
However, there is no mandatory requirement for foresters to insure.
The Forest Owners Association said $21 million a year is spent on fire protection, and Fire and Emergency told RNZ that foresters submit fire plans and the organisation is “confident in its ability to respond effectively to forestry fires”.
Pine forestry in Hawke’s Bay. Photo / Alexa Cook, RNZ
Fire and Emergency said forest owners “benefit significantly from their contributions to Fire and Emergency through the levy system, whether or not they choose to insure their forests and assets”.
“This support provides access to our rapid wildfire response capabilities, including aerial firefighting, skilled crews, and incident management teams, all of which minimise damage to forestry plantations.
“As part of a national emergency management framework, forest owners benefit from consistent planning, intelligence sharing, and regional coordination, which help reduce the frequency and severity of large-scale fires,” Fire and Emergency said.
Ikea does not have fire insurance, saying it was prohibitively expensive.
But Meredith said if there was a change in legislation the company would be “more than happy” to pay up.
“But it’s got to be equitable across all land users. We will not shy away from paying our fair share.
“I think it just needs to go through the rates database. If you own a hectare of land, you get levied x amount of cents per hectare – and then it’s equitable across all land uses,” he said.
A government review is underway, and Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden said she has asked officials to look into whether there were better ways to fund Fire and Emergency NZ than the current insurance levy system.
“In conducting this review, I have asked the department to keep an open mind in terms of what the potential alternatives could be. The work is still ongoing, but I expect rates-based collection to be among the alternatives explored.
“The goal ultimately is to assess whether or not the current model is still fit for purpose, and whether or not any other options would work better in practice, taking into account feasibility of implementation,” van Velden said.
* Ikea drove RNZ around two of their Central Hawke’s Bay forestry blocks in July