Farm land needs protection too
22 August 2019
Productive farmland needs the same protection the Government is giving to vegetable-growing soils, Wairoa Mayor Craig Little says.
FORESTRY ARCHIVES
Warning of green desert of trees
26 July 2019
Incentives for tree-planting credit schemes could create a great, green desert of radiata pine and trample native bush, officials have heard.
The Government proposes taxing farm livestock emissions and fertiliser emissions from 2025.
Forest wants slow trees growth
27 June 2019
As opposition rises around the purchase and planting of large tracts of farmland for trees Forest Protection Services managing director Kevin Ihaka suggests it might be time for the Government to put the brakes on the pace of the ambitious Billion Trees project and get farmers back on side. He spoke to Richard Rennie about how trees and farms can stand together better.
Forests push up farm prices
5 June 2019
The median price of forestry land has increased 45% in the last year, driven by Government incentives to plant trees, according to the Real Estate Institute.
Gamblers lift farm prices
31 May 2019
International investors speculating the cost of carbon credits will rise are driving forestry expansion and pushing up farmland prices.
Trees make rural mayors nervous
31 May 2019
Wairoa Mayor Craig Little is nervous.
In the last eight months 10,000ha, 7% of his district’s remaining pasture land, has been sold for forestry and he estimates it will cost 60 direct and indirect livestock farming jobs while creating 15.
Wood trade talks get the wobbles
24 May 2019
A change in direction by New Zealand in negotiations to upgrade the free-trade deal with China is off to a wobbly start.
The National-led Government signed up to the talks in 2016 only after getting agreement from China that safeguards slicing up to $100m a year off milk powder returns were up for negotiation.
Will money really grow on trees?
9 May 2019
Farmers have been enjoying strategic planning and business management in their heads but the pressure is on to get that planning onto paper.
Forest becomes more appealing
6 May 2019
Tree-planting incentives being offered by the Government will make forestry a more appealing land use option at the cost of food production, Rabobank sustainability analyst Blake Holgate says.
Fears forests will eat farms
6 May 2019
Forecasters predict up to another 5.4 million hectares of trees will be needed to offset our carbon emissions so New Zealand’s primary sector and rural landscape will be changed irrevocably. Neal Wallace investigates the merits and implications of such a move.
