Environmental group 50 Shades of Green has organised the march, which begins at Civic Square in Wellington and will wind up delivering a petition calling for the rejection of legislation that incentivises the blanket afforestation of farmland.
Farm Forestry Association president Hamish Levack says 50 Shades of Green demands to the Government to restrict forest planting will not be supported by many farmers he knows.
“There’s at least 10,000 owners of farm woodlots in New Zealand.
“If they want to retire some more of their farms to earn some more income by expanding their woodlots then that should be their right.
“And if they want to plant out the whole farm that should be their right as well and shouldn’t be stopped by some misinformed fringes of the farming community.”
He cites a recent Beef + Lamb report on Wairoa District that found a typical sheep and beef farm cannot complete with forestry returns over a 60-year period.
Levack says the 50 Shades of Green petition demanding the Government prevent farmers planting trees to offset carbon emissions sounds like climate change denial.
“Farmers who contribute towards reducing NZ’s net greenhouse gas emissions should be congratulated and not banned.
“I also can’t understand what they have against the Government’s Billion Trees programme. It’s a fund which is only available to farmers and only for part of a farm. I would think they would be in favour of this.”
A response on the 50 Shades Facebook page says the organisation supports the Billion Trees programme and the grants it makes available to landowners.
“In fact, we completely agree that farms are the best place for well planned plantations and other plantings.
“We view this scheme as an opportunity, not a threat, especially as it appears to be being well administered and adhering to the right tree, right place mantra we are all so fond of.
“We believe this model should have been the preferred mode of delivering more trees to our landscapes, rather than selling farms wholesale.”
The group said it is not misrepresenting the threat to productive farmland the policies pose.
It says reports by Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton and the Productivity Commission provide wide-scale afforestation estimates needed to offset fossil fuels at well over a million hectares.
“Not our numbers, numbers coming out of Wellington for all to see. These numbers warrant concern from everyone not just those on the fringes.”
It says those numbers should be ringing dairy boom style alarm bells.
“No one can argue with the profitability of forestry which incorporates high carbon prices,” it says, adding that all NZ citizens should be asking what that means for the country’s economic diversity 30 years from now when all the carbon payouts have dropped off and if half the world has surplus wood to sell.
