After a coronavirus-linked downturn in logging exports, the Otago research had also highlighted ways in which forestry workers could supplement their income, including by collecting manuka seeds, Associate Prof Janice Lord, of the university’s botany department, said.
‘‘It’s an example of what people could do while Covid-19 is affecting exports,’’ Prof Lord said yesterday.
Some further training in seed cleaning and preparation would be needed, but forestry workers were already trained for working in the bush, she said.
Good quality manuka seed sold for $1200 a kilogram, and existing supply was limited.
If native forest, including manuka, could be re-established more quickly as a result of Otago research, this approach could be introduced elsewhere in the country.
Increased growing of manuka could generate more lucrative honey and essential oil production, and help make more native seeds available commercially, she said.
Matthew Larcombe, also of the Otago department, said when scaled up, the Otago restoration approaches could help boost regional development, including ecotourism and contracting services.
Prof Lord said that starting from seed avoided ‘‘the time-consuming process of growing plants in nurseries’’.
The project responded to the ‘‘challenge of reforestation and carbon sequestration’’ in a timely way.
Support from Forestry New Zealand’s One Billion Trees Partnerships Fund of $825,000 over three years had launched the Reforestation from Seeds project Nga Kakano Whakahau.
This collaboration between the university, QEII Trust, Department of Conservation and Taege Engineering, is led by Prof Lord, with colleagues Dr Larcombe and Associate Prof David Orlovich.
Major trials have started at Mahu Whenua, a 55,000ha area between Lake Wanaka and the Shotover River, most of the area placed into QEII Trust covenants in 2015.
Botany PhD candidate Laura van Galen collected about 1.5million beech seeds for her research, and was now undertaking beech seed trials at the site, which involved sowing thousands of seeds in trial plots.
