How we work
Our people-focused philosophy extends to customers, suppliers and contractors with a strong emphasis on building long term relationships and collaboration. We are focused on ensuring our forests deliver economic, environmental and social benefits for this generation, as well as those to come.
Forest Growers Research is the Forest Owners Association research management organisation that co-ordinates industry input into forest growing sector research programmes. Rayonier Matariki Forests is actively involved in the Forest Research Committee which develops industry research strategies and funding recommendations as well as various technical committees that oversee our research. Their leadership in the direction and implementation of our research programmes is critical to ensuring they are relevant and well targeted to industry priorities
Our contractors
Rayonier Matariki Forests has robust contractor selection and engagement processes, developed to ensure that only contractors with demonstrated performance in safety and environmental management as well as operational competency are engaged.
Working very closely with our contractors, we jointly plan our operations to ensure the best outcome for our customers and support for contractors.
We have long term relationships with many - built on trust, transparency and success. From training and coaching harvesting crews to supporting contractors into business we know that the best way to improve our performance, efficiency and productivity is by collaborating with our valued contractors.
Health and safety is paramount and we regularly work alongside contractors to develop fresh thinking and new approaches to improve harvesting techniques.
From day one, Rayonier Matariki Forests has been an absolute joy to work with. They’re a great bunch of people – loyal, approachable and professional. We have worked alongside them for 15 years, planning our respective businesses’ futures together in a partnership that is rare in the forestry industry.
Our customers
One of our core values is “Commitment to our customers.” We endeavor to understand our customers’ businesses and their needs, to respond and work as a business partner in order to deliver what we promise and achieve the best, mutually beneficial, long term outcomes.
We’ve been a customer of Rayonier Matariki Forests from the beginning. They have consistently supplied us with quality logs and have clearly demonstrated a serious commitment to supplying New Zealand processors and the domestic market. If we ever run short they go out of their way to help us out. The team at RMF is highly professional, fair and approachable. We have entered into longer term arrangements, with them as we like to work with companies that have good old-fashioned business ethics.
Health & Safety
Rayonier Matariki Forests is an industry leader with a strong safety culture and our health and safety performance is amongst the best in New Zealand.
We believe that strong Health & Safety performance and excellent business performance go hand in hand and we are proud of our safety record.
It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure our people get home safely, every day and we continually review our procedures and look for improvements to make the job safer.
We actively participate in industry groups including the Business Leaders Safety Forum and Forestry Industry Safety Council. We also collaborate with other forest owners to address the wider industry safety.
We commit significant resources to ensuring best practice within our operations and we assist harvesting contractors to develop processes and provide training that aim to improve safety culture.
Health and nutrition is strongly linked to safety and we support initiatives to improve our people’s health.
As part of our health and safety protocols, forestry access needs to be controlled to ensure the safety of everyone.
Research & development
Rayonier Matariki Forests is actively involved in research programmes at all levels of the forestry industry from operational to governance. We work with some of New Zealand’s leading research entities including SCION, University of Canterbury, University of Otago and Landcare Research.
Our efforts are aimed at improving the efficiency and productivity of our forestry operations as well as benefitting the greater industry.
Research programmes we fund include:
- Genetics and breeding – leading-edge research into the use of genetic markers to identify superior breeding characteristics coupled with conventional breeding techniques to grow better, stronger trees.
- Site management – soil studies in our forests to understand how best to optimise soil health and therefore the health of the trees.
- Inventory modelling development – LiDAR data is used to model trees on the estate and utilisation of this data as an alternative to conventional inventory measures.
- Remote sensing and analysis – LiDAR and satellite imagery is used to describe the contour of forestry estates, to facilitate harvest planning and engineering operations, and to monitor the health of the forest estate.
- Supply chain tracking – investigating alternative methods of measuring and tracking trees and logs to improve supply chain performance from the stand to Rayonier Matariki Forests’ customers.
- Harvest mechanisation – research into the development of mechanised steep country harvesting to further improve safety and productivity.