Friday, March 29, 2024

PULPIT: Right forests can help farmers

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I share a number of the concerns Alan Emerson raises in his Alternative View: One hand plants, the other kills. The concern around productive farmland being converted into forestry is real. 
Attempts last year to prevent permanent carbon forests from accessing the ETS and suggesting ways to decouple forestry from the ETS were dropped after pushback from forestry owners
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Large-scale conversion of productive, profitable, pastoral farmland runs the risk of damaging rural communities and the rural culture that defines our country.

It might seem strange for a forestry entity focused on carbon and harvest to acknowledge that but the Drylandcarbon model can benefit our environment, our economy, actively support pastoral farming and provide farmers with important sources of income.

Drylandcarbon is about how the right forestry for carbon and tree harvest can boost farm incomes, enhance our environment and protect viable pastoral farming.

Many farmers are struggling with land that is marginal in terms of productivity and profitability but that is suitable for forestry. It is important the regulatory, industry and community environments enable these landowners to capture income from both carbon farming and tree harvest on this land.

The viability of overall farming operations is, in many cases, dependent on it.

However, land suitability is important and at Drylandcarbon we’re committed to appropriate land use. We seek to be the partner of choice for farmers, iwi and rural communities who want to convert economically marginal, steep, often erosion-prone land into forestry.

We have walked away from buying land where we felt it was too good to go into trees and better left as a productive, profitable, pastoral operation.

We are also careful about what land we plant on our properties. Recently, for example, we bought a 1600ha block where we carved out the productive, pastoral land and homestead and leased it to the farm manager.

The block is perfectly suited to forestry though just short of 50% of it is not suited for planting and will be supported to revert to native bush.

For another property we are advancing a land swap to carve out land that should continue to be farmed and swapping it for steep, marginal land suited to forestry.

There are plenty of farms across New Zealand with areas of steep, erosion-prone land that is difficult and uneconomic to farm. 

While we do buy land that’s suitable for forestry our preferred model is to partner with farmers under a joint venture model.

Under this approach a partnership is formed for up to 35 years where the farmer retains ownership of the land, Drylandcarbon plants, maintains and manages the forest and ETS activities and the carbon credit and tree harvest proceeds are split 50:50 with the landowner. The land remains the farmer’s at the end. 

In other instances the approach might involve Drylandcarbon retaining all the carbon with the landowner entitled to all of the tree harvest.

This approach provides farmers with valuable, long-term, passive income from their marginal land, enabling debt repayment, investment in improving the productivity of the core farming block, more diversification and better farm succession.

Where a joint venture isn’t a preferred option for a landowner we’re interested in subdivision where land suitable for forestry can be carved off and bought, enabling farmers to manage capital and intensify their profitable farming operations.

Drylandcarbon’s team has a long history in rural NZ and we understand that for many farmers extra income from non-productive land is valuable, particularly when the farmer does not need to sell the farm.

Increasingly, farmers and their families want to do even more to protect the natural environment of which they are custodians. 

Forestry on the right land can play a vital role in stabilising erosion-prone land and limiting silt run-off into waterways.

While rapid-growing exotic species are the primary focus because of their superior ability to absorb carbon and generate more income we are increasingly active in native forest restoration – both protecting existing forests and encouraging native regeneration.

Native forest is much more expensive to plant, much more difficult to establish and maintain and, in the commercial time frames important to farmers, generates much less carbon income than exotics. However, there is an increasing interest in fostering and protecting native forests from across rural communities.

Climate change is a critical challenge of our time. 

It is real and the effects are clearly starting to be felt, particularly across rural NZ. 

Every appropriate emission reduction opportunity must be seized and forestry has a vital role to play.

Responsibly converting economically marginal land to forestry and ensuring we plant the right tree in the right place can deliver significant benefits. It can materially boost incomes to farmers and rural communities who need it, increase the productivity of pastoral farming and deliver enduring benefits for our natural environment.

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