Māori landowners want more certainty exotic trees will remain in ETS after govt backdown

The National Māori Forestry Association says it is not reassured, despite a government u-turn that will keep exotic forests in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The government, in a consultation process that is still ongoing, had proposed to remove exotic trees, such as pine, from the ETS to encourage native forest planting.

It came after a backlash from the farming sector that too many beef and sheep farms on productive land would be converted to pine, thus hurting rural communities.

But the moves incensed some Māori landowners, and they formed the group, Ngā Pou a Tāne / the Māori Forestry Association, off the back of it.

Some iwi rely heavily on forestry to get income from their last remaining lands, and they argued that to change the ETS would kill that income.

Yesterday, the government confirmed a partial backdown, with climate change minister James Shaw and forestry minister Stuart Nash writing to landowners to say the change is now unlikely.

“While we consulted on options to prevent exotic forests from registering in the permanent forest category by the end of the year,” they wrote, “we have now decided to take more time to fully consider options for the future direction of the ETS permanent forest category.

In a statement to RNZ on Friday evening, Shaw said the concerns of Māori landowners had been heard, and that more time was needed to make sure that feedback was properly considered.

“Work will continue, with ongoing input from technical experts, stakeholders and Māori. On that basis, the permanent forestry category is unlikely to be closed to exotics from January 2023, as was proposed,” Shaw said.

“Final decisions will be taken by Cabinet in due course.”

Association chair Te Kapunga Dewes welcomed the letter, but also said the language used did not guarantee a permanent place for exotic forests. He wanted a permanent backdown.

“The wording like ‘take more time’, ‘unlikely to propose’, ‘leave as it is for now’. Those elements don’t provide the certainty that we as Māori need to unlock and unleash, and sustainably develop our land.

“Unfortunately, those sorts of words create uncertainty,” he said.

Dewes said Crown consultation had been poor, and it was only sought under the threat of legal action.

“Māori had to exclaim to government that if they went through with this, we would be taking them to the Waitangi Tribunal, we would be taking them to the UN.

“That is the only way that we managed to get their attention and had we been working in partnership as the Government continues to say they would like to do then I doubt we would have got there,” Dewes said.

About a third of the country’s plantation forests are Māori owned, a figure that is likely to rise to about 40 percent as more Treaty settlements are completed. Māori also make up about 40 percent of the forestry workforce.

Climate Change Forestry Māori Leaders Group chair Chris Karamea Insley said the government’s letter was encouraging, but it did little to clear confusion.

He said if the government’s proposal went ahead, it would be able to dictate what Māori could and could not grow on their own land.

“By removing this as an option to plant fast-growing exotic trees on Māori land, they would do that by legislating away that right that Māori landowners no longer have the choice to make that decision themselves about what they can and can’t do.”

Agriculture group baffled

However, chief executive of Beef and Lamb NZ, Sam McIvor, said he was left baffled by the letter.

McIvor said the purpose of the changes to the scheme was to slow down the number of sheep and beef farms that were being converted into forests for quick carbon credits.

“Our fear is this is that we have … wholesale sale of sheep and beef farms, wholly being planted and carbon forestry that is untended, and we lose all of that food production.

“We also lose the vibrancy of our rural communities, the employment that goes with that farming, when those whole farms are sold,” McIvor said.

Shaw and Nash would meet again with Māori forest owners next week to discuss more permanent proposals.

McIvor hoped that meeting would include intergration of carbon farming and food production businesses.

“We believe that the government is not dealing with the fundamental problem, which is the ability of fossil fuel emitters to offset 100 percent of their emissions,” McIvor said.

Sheep and cattle farmer John McFadzean also disagreed with making exotic trees eligible for carbon credits.

“Because they’re fast growing and heavily wooded, they will start toppling at ages 30 to 40.

“And in some areas in New Zealand where they’ve been planted recently, they’re in high run wind, rain areas, unstable soil and they will probably cause the biggest environmental damage that we’ve seen in New Zealand’s history,” McFadzean said .