The Māori had a close relationship with the indigenous forest, including customs and values as well practical knowledge of uses for many of the trees, plants and animals therein.  According to Landcare Research, New Zealand has "2500 native species of conifers, flowering plants, and ferns; and 80% occur nowhere else in the world."  The Māori, and then the settlers as they arrived, used a number of specias for timber including rimu, totara, matai and most notably the giant kauri trees.  Intensive logging in the 19th and early 20th centuries decimated forests reducing them by about half.  Today, while there are still significant areas of indigeneous forest, it is the  monoculture radiata plantations that are an important source of revenue.  Indeed forestry is New Zealand's third largest export earner. 

In the 1990s the New Zealand Government sold much forest land to private interests.  The Government still has some forestry assets, accounting for about 3% of the annual harvest, managed by Crown Forestry.

The extent of foreign ownership has been a concern.  A frequently cited figure from the Forest Owners Association is that in 2010 317,000 hectares of plantation forest were owned by overrseas entities and another 654,000 hectares leased and managed by overseas entities. The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa notes that, "Our best estimate is that in 2011 at least 8.7 percent of New Zealand farmland including forestry, or 1.3 million hectares, was foreign-owned or controlled and it could have reached 10 percent."  Foreign ownership was an issue in the 2017 election  and  upon taking power the Labour coalition government  has taken steps to tighten control.

Māori are key stakeholders; 1.35 million hectares or about 3% of the land area of New Zealand is Māori land, managed through trusts and corporations, and used for a broad range of purposes as with other lands.  For example, in the north, Taitokerau Maori Forests Inc., founded in 1986, is a collective "managed by Māori for Māori."

Forests, even plantation forests, provide many noneconomic benefits such as preventing erosion, improving water quality, recreational opportunities and carbon storage.  A 2017 report by the NZ Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) cites a study that found "planted exotic forests in New Zealand also provide habitat for at least 118 threatened native species and may have particular value in providing forested corridors linking areas of other indigenous habitats."  In other words plantation forests are better than pastures as a habitat for some native species.  Nonetheless they are a far cry from the diverse indigenous forests.

Northland has about 151,800 hectares of planted production forest area,  Driving around Northland one frequently encounters trucks carrying logs.  While some are processed, more than half (57.1% in 2016) are exported unprocessed  to Asia, particularly China.  A 2015 report by the Ministry for Primary Industries states, "Although it will be challenging, the region needs to move beyond being primarily a radiata pine log exporter and invest in further processing and higher value species."  The 2016-17 annual report of the Wood Council of New Zealand (Woodco) mentions, "the unfairness of the VAT differential between logs and sawn lumber exported to China."
Forests are a central part of New Zealand's effort to address climate change and ultimately achieve a zero carbon economy.  In 2008 the government passed legislation establishing an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). As part of this landowners are encouraged to "establish forests to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere."  They can earn carbon credits (NZUs), which they  can then sell to businesses that emit carbon.  In Oct. 2017 the incoming government announced an ambitious initiative to plant one billion trees over ten years.  Forestry Minister Shane Jones stated in Feb. 2018, "The tree planting programme will benefit New Zealand’s provinces, our environment and our people—it is a big boost for the forestry sector and will create more jobs and training opportunities to provinces that have been doing it tough for a while now,”  Further, he said, "[P]lanting trees is a sustainable and effective contribution towards our transition to a zero carbon economy."
 
Some have raised concerns about the structure of the forestry sector.  The 2017 report by NZIER notes, "Responsibility for government policy in forestry is spread over a number of government departments with no all-embracing national forestry policy."  The 2016-17 annual report of Woodco —which in 2006 succeeded the New Zealand Forest Industries Councill as the umbrella organization "for both the growing and processing interests of the industry"—states, "[W]e are still an industry made up of a bewildering array of bodies providing a wide range of services to the industry." 

• According to Stats NZ, New Zealand has a land area of 26.84 million hectares, of which 6.96 million hectares (25.9%) are indigenous forest and 2.14 million hectares (7.97%) are exotic forest (the biggest category is exotic grassland at 10.62 million hectares (39.6%)). (+)  
• FOA puts the estimated net stocked plantation forest area as of April 1, 2016 at 1.74 million hectares.   As of 2016 Northland had about 11% of plantation forest in New Zealand or 185,939 hectares.
• Ninety percent of the planted production forest is radiata pine. 
• A record 30.7 million cubic meters of timber was harvested in 2016.
• For the year ended Dec. 2016, of a total of 30,515,000 logs cut, 17,429,000 were exported and 13,062,000 were processed in New Zealand.
• New Zealand is the 2nd largest log exporter in the world after Russia.  70%-plus of log exports went to China.
  
• Forestry is New Zealand's third largest export earner.  According to the Compendium of New Zealand Farm Facts 2017, for the year ended June 2016 the total value of exports was  NZ$47.1 billion; the value of forestry exports tallied NZ$5.1 billion, comprising $3.2 billion in sawn timber and logs, $631 million in other wood and wood products, and $1.2 billion in paper and paper products. 
• Of the NZ$5.1 billion value for forestry exports China accounted for NZ$2.2 billion, followed by Australia (NZ$597,300), Korea (NZ$482,794) and Japan (NZ$429,214).
  
  FOA Facts & Figures 2016/17, Stats NZ, Compendium