Our Foundation Story

The Trustees maintain close links with tertiary education providers, businesses, wood councils, and other industry organisations.

The Foundation has always supported Forestry in its broadest sense, including native and plantation forests, wider ecosystem benefits, carbon sequestration, wood processing and supply chains. In 2026, it officially rebranded as the Forest & Wood Foundation to better reflect the broader focus.

Despite the evolution, the connection between the Foundation and the NZIF remains strong. The Foundation is grateful to have the NZIF as its cornerstone partner. The Foundation's objective of growing capability across the sector and providing education and development closely aligned with the Institute's goals to achieve a high level of professionalism in the industry. The Foundation's annual awards ceremony takes place as part of the annual NZIF awards dinner.

Since its inception, in addition to administering and promoting the original NZIF awards, the Foundation's trustees have worked with individuals and organisations across the industry to develop, support and promote new awards that align with the Foundations objectives. These partnerships have included companies, individuals and wood councils in areas such as tertiary study, research and professional development. This workstream has resulted in over $200,000 being awarded to 88 recipients during the Foundations first 15 years. The aim is to continue to grow this contribution each year.