Hikurangi Enterprises researcher Pia Pohatu at Ruatoria has spent three years working with Motu Research scoping Maori landowners’ interest in carbon farming and native forest regeneration.
As rural communities wrestle with the risk of being swamped by pines Maori landowners have been taking a circumspect view on how to engage in emerging carbon markets.
For many an opportunity might already exist if areas of their land have native regeneration, such as manuka or kanuka. And areas that might better suit being retired could be committed to emerging carbon ventures.
An alliance between petroleum company Gull and the Maori incorporation Nuhiti Q at Anaura Bay to buy carbon credits generated through native replanting on an ETS-registered property is regarded as a trailblazer.
“But a combination of Cyclone Bola’s impact, scale and strong leadership to diversify land use in an emerging industry means what has been done at Nuhiti Q is unique, more an exception than rule. The majority of the Maori landowners participating in this research have smaller landholdings and have a farming and/or production forestry in the mix. But that does not mean you cannot combine carbon income into the total mix.”
Iwi tend to take a longer-term, inter-generational view of land ownership and forestry options might not necessarily fall into the traditional 30-year pine rotation model.
A preference for planting native trees in some areas might also be driven as much by holistic preferences as by natives often being more suited to some of the terrain being planted.
“The majority of production forests on the east coast were established in the 70s through Government policy and subsidy. It is only recently that we have been able to get a subsidy to plant native trees.”
On average it takes longer-lived indigenous species 200 years to sequester the same amount of carbon as an exotic forest over 28 years but if left unharvested for more than 200 years they will sequester greater amounts of carbon that rotated exotics.
“When it comes to the ETS the perception is natives are not seen as the moneymaker but exotic plantings are.”
Pohatu says that is exacerbated by look-up tables used to inform a forest’s sequestration rate not reflecting the true indigenous forest sequestration ability.
She welcomes a current review of ETS table measurements to correct that and is advising iwi landowners to prepare for plotting at the time ETS returns are due. That will give actual sequestration measurements.
“Measurements taken locally are already showing kanuka sequesters carbon two to three times faster than the look-up tables indicate.
The ETS will soon have a new forest category that will help address this – the permanent post-1989 forest category.
Past sales of NZ carbon units from indigenous forests suggests buyers are inclined to pay a premium for carbon stored from those forests.
Increasing carbon stored in agricultural soils has the potential to help offset emissions but measurement is complex in soils with already high carbon levels. But research is working to determine soil carbon growth and stability.
Pohatu said that research supports the need for the right tree in the right place and the option of permanent forests and-or sustainable harvesting regimes – something the Tolaga Bay floods revealed in stark detail.
“Those plantations were the result of decisions made at an earlier time with the options those decision-makers had before them. As decision-makers we don’t control the entire process through harvesting and beyond. Today we have additional considerations to factor in like work safety, water quality, biodiversity, climate resilience, our net carbon footprint – every decision-making opportunity needs to result in a good decision.”
She is optimistic at least a third of the participating landowners in the research will go the next step and plant indigenous trees for carbon values.
The research is also looking to support decision-making processes with aids and tools to communicate the complexities and challenges of carbon farming and trading to their wider landowner base.
