The article states that it buys unprofitable land and plants it in a cover crop of pine trees for short-term gain of carbon credits and it will allow indigenous trees to flourish beneath the umbrella of the pine trees.
The Climate Change Commission notes in it’s report “that the process of regenerating native trees under pine trees can take centuries and along the way unharvested pine forests can cause problems with wilding pines or trees falling over”.
According to Walsh “an ideal plot is to have indigenous trees surrounding, or within the pine blocks, because that would naturally seed the whole block regenerating into indigenous forest”.
We have a Queen Elizabeth II Trust retired block of native trees surrounded by pines. The trust actually subsidises us to cut out the seedling pines that infest the block from the surrounding pines that if left to grow would smother out the bulk of the native trees.
A good example of the invasive nature of pine trees is the wilding pines down south and the pines spreading across the Desert Road area.
The company says that they will thin and create light holes in the forest so indigenous trees can come through.
Call me cynical, but if this is going to affect income from the carbon credits and by the time the forest has changed ownership several times, as can happen, I doubt if this will ever be done.
I have since read an article in Farmers Weekly (May 10) about one of NZ Carbon Farms’ blocks at Viewfield in Otago.
Last year a fire broke out in the block and the local district and regional council politicians were shocked at the unkept state of the forest when they visited recently. There were no fire breaks and no apparent weed or pest control.
The article tries another form of justification for this short-sighted land grab by saying they provide employment for 28 full-time staff and temporary work for another 300.
Beef + Lamb NZ commissioned a report from BakerAg to analyse the effect on employment that the tree planting programme is causing and they worked out per 1000ha, that carbon farming produces 0.6 jobs per annum, and sheep and beef properties generate 7.4 local jobs per annum consistently for the indefinite future.
This means that for their 46,000ha, they employ 27 people annually but cost the jobs of 340 farming staff annually. They also calculated that the area in carbon forest would generate one and a quarter million annually, whereas if it was left in beef and sheep farms the area would generate fourteen-and-a-half million annually and this is causing a decimating effect on the small rural communities of NZ. These losses are multiplied many times by other companies doing the same type of operation.
“This report illustrated the huge risk of unintended consequences from poorly designed policy and emission targets, which will incentivise a high level of afforestation and result in a devastating impact on rural communities,” it stated.
In the newspaper article, the company, when asked who buys NZCEF credits, the company was coy. Until 2019 the company’s website said it’s core business was the supply of bulk carbon credits “direct to large energy and oil companies”.
This means they sell credits to giant oil companies so they can carry on emitting carbon at the present rate and not have to cut production and profit to meet global targets. To do this they are buying valuable productive farmland in NZ and planting it in exotic monoculture forest for personal gains and depriving future generations of New Zealanders of a long-term viable economy.
These forests have been planted when carbon credits were $25 a tonne. Now the carbon price is close to $40/t and it is said they will go to $70.
At these higher prices, generally sheep and beef farms won’t be able to compete with the carbon forests and the whole of NZ’s productive hill country will be in danger of being brought up by the carbon companies for short-term gains to NZ’s long-term detriment.
Who am I? Robert Liverton is a North Wairarapa farmer.
