ESTABLISHING ROOTS

Gillian F. Prowse—Paku’s wife and a fellow New Zealand native—said she, Paku and her two-year-old daughter would one day return to New Zealand. She said she did not feel concerned about Harvard’s large-scale investment in her country’s forests.

“It’s an inevitable thing. New Zealand has to sell off and privatize a lot of resources. Since New Zealanders can’t afford large chunks of the country, its good at least that Harvard can make use of this, though I think it’s a pity that New Zealand at the moment can’t make profit off their own land,” Prowse said. “They just don’t have the capital.”

The Kaingaroa forest, situated in the middle of the North Island, lies along the ring of fire, a belt of volcanoes.

“The issues of access to the forest are not a big a problem as they could be,” Prowse said. “There are other problems with companies buying up the coastland and preventing access to the rest of the country. I’d be concerned if this was prime real estate, but it’s a chunk of forest in the middle of the North Island.”

Paku said he understands the critical role that outside institutions play in New Zealand’s economy.

“You can categorize the forests into three groups,” Paku said. “The largest forests are owned by institutional investors. They do not usually purchase the land, but the cutting rights to the property.”

Paku said it was in Harvard’s best interest to treat the forest respectfully.

“In general, the approach is to treat natural resources with a view to the future,” Paku said. “There is no wholesale destruction of the environment involved.”

—Staff writer Elena P. Sorokin can be reached at sorokin@fas.harvard.edu.