Friday, March 29, 2024

Natives require sound funding

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The end of the One Billion Trees (1BT) project initiated by the last coalition government has left a funding hole for the Government to fill if it is to meet the Climate Change Commission’s (CCC) recommendations.
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The CCC has recommended the area planted in new native forest be almost doubled from next year to 20,000ha a year for the next 15 years, covering 300,000ha of land.

This puts the proportion of new exotic to new native planting every year up to almost 50:50, with 25,000ha of exotics also recommended to be planted, totalling 380,000ha by 2035.

In December 1BT funding agency Te Uru Rakau announced no further 1BT funding would be accepted after the body had granted $80.3 million in direct planting grants and $96.5m in partnership grants.

However, the high cost of native planting, slow establishment times and slow carbon sequestration has some in the industry questioning how native afforestation will ever succeed without targeted future funding.

Forest Management Group director David Janett says there will be a need for some level of incentive to prompt landowners to plant natives post-1BT.

“The CCC is saying 380,000ha of exotics should be planted. At a carbon price of $30-$40 a unit they can pay for themselves, earning a decent return per hectare in credits by year seven, often better than what could be earnt farming that land,” he said.

Exotics cost about $2000 a hectare to establish, and the repayment period is relatively short at about seven years. Banks are also now taking a more favourable view of lending based on returns and the relatively small cost compared to the capital value of the farm.

“But you can be looking at up to six times that cost to plant and establish natives. We are even hearing costs of up to $20,000 a hectare to get natives established,” Janett said.

Janett says significant declines in rural populations are only going to exacerbate the challenges of establishing such labour-intensive forests.

The working age population of northern Hawke’s Bay for example is predicted to decline by 40% over the next 20 years.

“That is something that everyone seems to be ignoring across all sectors when it comes to labour needs,” he said.

Forest Owners Association president Phil Taylor says native trees’ ability to sequester carbon does not peak until years 30-40, and while providing a viable long-term means of sequestration, they fall short in the tighter timeframes required for an earlier response to dealing with carbon emissions.

“And the recommendations include planting natives in areas like the East Coast of both islands. A significant issue against that is that these areas are proving drought-prone, and there are huge difficulties in planting natives, along with issues of labour and seed supply,” Taylor said.

He says the funding gap post-1BT is one that will have to be addressed as the Government responds to the CCC’s recommendations and adjusts policies.

“Some options to incentivise natives could be to have an NZ native differential price on carbon units from such plantings,” he said.

He was concerned the CCC had taken a binary “natives:exotics” view of plantings.

“But there can be a huge continuum in between. What they are seeking from natives is that long-lived carbon sequestration. But there are plenty of exotics, like redwoods and Douglas fir that also grow for many years. Douglas fir top out at 500 years, for example,” he said.

Steeper hill country being retired would be suited to such trees, and they would provide an earlier return on sequestered carbon.

“I suspect the CCC may come out in favour of long-lived exotics for this reason, and the 300,000ha of natives will instead be a combination of long-lived exotics and natives. You have to have the economics in place to stimulate plantings by landowners,” he said.

Despite being over, Taylor says he regards the 1BT programme as worthy of some praise for putting forestry back on the table as a land-use option.

“From a commercial forestry view it did not have much impact. Also, what people forget is that half the one billion trees were already being planted each year as replacements,” he said.

In a written statement, Te Uru Rakau said despite the end of the 1BT funding it remained committed to investing in tree planting and funding options, including the Matariki Tu Rakau programme, hill country erosion funding and sustainable food and fibre funding.

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