Incident Response Plan development

February 2024

The Incident Response Plan has been developed to describe the CNI Wood Council’s response to a major incident or weather event.

The strategy is based on managing identified and agreed support requirements during a major incident or weather event.

The Plan is intended to provide a list of the key tasks, roles and responsibilities, and any resource requirements and support required to accomplish the objectives.

The Wood Council Executive being the Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary & CE at their discretion will determine whether and when to activate this plan. This decision will be based on the impact/s of the major incident or weather event on the Central North Island region’s forest and wood industry.

To activate this plan the initial response will be to call an urgent meeting of the Wood Council committee.  If due to the impacts of a major incident or weather event on for example: communication links, roading systems etc a quorum is unable to be made the Executive will have delegation to establish a formal response.

The purpose of the initial meeting is to gather information (a collective understanding of what has happened), record and analyse this information, and then determine the initial response actions. This could be to engage with affected members and communities to determine their needs. The Executive will connect with regional authorities to stay informed of any formal emergency declaration and determine information requirements.

Once a decision has been made to move beyond the initial response a detailed Incident Response Plan will be developed that clearly defines roles and responsibilities.

Example:

Situation:

A major cyclone in the Turangi area

Consequences & impact: 

• Considerable damage to the plantation forests
• Several roads have been closed

Responses:

• Call an emergency Wood Council meeting to understand the impact and affected members and communities
• Identity support requirements and compile a list of key tasks
• Allocate roles and responsibilities
• Identify any resource requirements
• Identify any other support required (i.e. comms)

TASK: Initial contact
ROLE: Contact all members located in the affected area to determine the impacts and the level of support required.
RESPONSIBILITY: Executive

TASK: Connect with authorities
ROLE: Connect with relevant authorities to obtain further information and share Wood Council information. This will allow the Wood Council to monitor any formal state of emergency declaration. Relevant authorities could include: FENZ, regional and district Councils, TURNZFS, MPI
RESPONSIBILITY: Executive

TASK: Connect with industry bodies
ROLE: Connect with relevant industry bodies such as FICA, FISC, FOA, NZFFA, WPMA etc.
RESPONSIBILITY: Executive

TASK: Establish a Response Plan
ROLE: The plan should: Identify the response lead; Outline the plan’s objectives; Identify resourcing needs; Identify key roles including intelligence, logistics, comms, liaison, SMEs etc. Establish registers to capture intelligence from across the members.
RESPONSIBILITY: Executive with support from designated committee members.

TASK: Communications Strategy
ROLE: Stand up FOA Communications Strategy. Identify spokespeople if required and/or assist with Pan Sector Operational Communication.
RESPONSIBILITY: Response Lead

TASK: Debrief
ROLE: Conduct a debrief of the event response and make changes to the plan as required.
RESPONSIBILITY: Response Lead