A Government review of the Emissions Trading Scheme has highlighted how contentious the simple tree has become.
Blair Jamieson of Tāmata Hauhā, which is carbon farming on Māori land, told TVNZ’s Sunday programme that the review is creating uncertainty.
“They keep tutuing with it and every time they do it hurts everyone and it hurts Māori as well. We got land back from settlement on the provision that the ETS would be there.“
But the Minister for Climate Change and Associate Minister for the Environment James Shaw says the ETS review is directly responding to the independent Climate Change Commission.
Its 2021 stark warning was that, if left untouched, “there could be an oversupply of forestry generated New Zealand Units (NZUs) in the 2030s which could crash the whole system”.
NZUs are the units traded in carbon farming which are apportioned to specific trees depending on how much carbon they’re capable of sequestering from the atmosphere.
The units are bought by big polluters to offset their emissions.
Minister Shaw says the government is looking to future proof the ETS.
“Because there is likely to be significant and persistent uncertainty, and falling carbon prices, in future under the current settings. This will undermine Māori investments in forestry,” he says.
The debate of what type of tree should go where is a hot-button issue in Aotearoa now.
One of the reasons pine is favoured by carbon farmers is that it grows quickly.
Forestry slash
Manu Caddie helped form Te Weu Charitable Trust, a collective of researchers in Tairāwhiti examining the impacts of carbon farming, climate change and sustainable land use.
Although he believes pine can be planted where appropriate, it has lost its social licence, particularly on the east coast which was so devastated by forestry slash during Cyclone Gabrielle.
“It would be fair to say pine has been a disaster for the coast in some ways. In other ways it provides employment for a lot of whānau for a long time,” Caddie says.
“But looking at it now the way it is impacting on communities, the way it is impacting on infrastructure, we are finding shallow rooted pine on erosion prone land is not a good idea, it’s been a disaster from that respect.”
Unlike anywhere else in the world, in Aotearoa the emissions trading scheme allows for unlimited forestry.
Caddie is wary about the role of pine in our ETS. “I worry about pine being planted anywhere, if the basis for that is carbon income.”
He hopes the ETS review leads to the prioritisation of native trees which held up well during the cyclone, live for longer therefore sequestering carbon for longer, and encourage biodiversity.
Blair Jamieson of Tāmata Hauhā acknowledges the social licence for pine has been damaged but he says that exotics, including pine, can be grown to create a nursery for natives underneath.
“We treat a forest as if it’s the marae of Tane Mahuta, the god of forestry and birds. If we bring in an exotic we treat it like a manuhiri, it’s a visitor to the site. They’re there for a time, they’re there to behave. And then they are asked to leave at some point.”
The concept is called transitional forestry, it’s also detailed online by Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Forest Service.
“People might not like me saying it but an exotic can do that (create a nursery) far quicker than a native.”
It means landowners can start earning from their trees under the Emission Trading Scheme faster too.
But Caddie is unconvinced.
“I think the promises around transition to natives, that really needs to be interrogated. It's much harder to build a diverse native forest out of a pine plantation than it is off bare country. So you'd be better to start the way you want to continue if that's the ultimate goal.”
The Government has proposed four options in the ETS review and is open to others as it seeks feedback until August 11.
Currently the ETS does not differentiate between emissions reductions (cutting pollution going into the atmosphere) and removals (from trees that absorb and store carbon).
“What this means in essence, is that an unlimited amount of forestry can lead to an unlimited amount of pollution allowed,” says Minister Shaw.
The review is seeking feedback on whether the ETS should prioritise gross emissions reductions.
Shaw’s office confirmed there will be no policy announcement before the election.
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