Beef + Lamb New Zealand has welcomed the formation of the Native Forest Coalition, saying the growing chorus against unchecked carbon farming cannot be ignored.
The coalition has released a policy statement and recommendations on native forests, highlighting what it sees as the urgent need to stop the rapid proliferation of pine plantations driven by high carbon prices and short-term policy settings.
It strongly favours prioritising native forestry over exotics and argues that before seeking offshore carbon forest credits, government should invest in native forests at home.
“In tackling the climate change crisis, there’s an urgent need to move away from short-term thinking and siloed government policy,” the statement said.
“We need a shift towards joined up strategies that also address the biodiversity crisis, the degradation of waterways and risks to rural communities.”
It says siloed thinking is leading to poor outcomes, including large-scale establishment of non-harvested exotic carbon forests and unsustainable clear-fell forestry that places ecosystem health at risk.
The coalition has produced what it says are key recommendations to form the terms of reference for an inter-agency strategic review by key government departments, looking at how to better align climate change and biodiversity policies.
“Urgent action is critically important as carbon prices are driving rapid investment in exotic forestry across our valued landscapes,” it said.
It wants an amendment to the eligibility criteria and permanent forest category in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
“The ETS is driving perverse outcomes and changes are urgently required to ensure that the current asymmetry of incentives between natives and exotics is addressed,” it said.
The coalition advocates recycling ETS revenue to fund research into the expansion of native forests and wants more funding for strategic pest animal and plant management on private and public land to support large-scale reforestation.
It supports efforts to sequester carbon through forestry but wants more emphasis on permanent native forest carbon sinks.
B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor says it is getting harder for the Government to do nothing about the issues the coalition has raised.
“There are so many voices calling for action,” McIvor said.
“We need urgent solutions now, before too much more damage is done to rural communities and so we don’t miss real opportunities to protect and enhance NZ’s biodiversity.”
He says B+LNZ has been calling for urgent changes to the ETS for some time, to stop the wholesale conversion of productive sheep and beef farmland into carbon farms.
“Like the coalition, we believe there’s a better way – the integration of trees on farms. Farmers know their land best. We’re not anti-forestry – exotic planting can be integrated where appropriate – but it’s about planting the right tree in the right place.
“Our sheep and beef farms are already home to 1.4 million hectares of native woody vegetation – and land-use changes over the past 30 years have added two million hectares to the country’s conservation estate, the largest private sector contribution to biodiversity in New Zealand,” he said.
McIvor says despite that, farmers can’t get recognition of much of it under the current ETS rules.
“There are serious imbalances of incentives for planting exotics versus natives. That’s why we’ve worked so hard to get a wider range of sequestration recognised under the He Waka Eke Noa primary sector climate action partnership options,” he said.
“We’ve also repeatedly told the Government they need to take a holistic approach to policy development – across water, biodiversity and climate, but also taking into account sustainable food production. That’s the only way to achieve real and lasting environmental outcomes while protecting an important part of New Zealand’s economic health.”
The Native Forest Coalition represents the Environmental Defence Society, Pure Advantage, Rod Donald Trust, the Tindall Foundation, Project Crimson, Dame Anne Salmond and Dr Adam Forbes.
The coalition also has the support of Fish & Game NZ.
Fish & Game spokesperson Ray Grubb says current initiatives to address the climate crisis have a short-sighted focus on securing offshore carbon credits, ignoring significant long-term environmental and social problems.
He says the effect of pines on instream flows is a very real concern.
“Research has established rainwater runoff is diminished by up to 40% by pine plantations. Widespread plantings in catchments will be in direct conflict with the Government’s current objectives to improve freshwater,” Grubb said.
“Mass sedimentation events when exotic forests are felled have catastrophic impacts on instream biology and water quality.”
Grubb says plantation forestry has a place in helping meet NZ’s climate change commitments, but the proliferation of monoculture pine plantings in recent years has clearly been “out of control” and “ill-considered”.
“Look at what’s happening in the high country where the Department of Conservation and landowners are waging an ongoing and very costly war against wilding pines, which threaten the iconic landscape,” he said.
