Forest & Bird says the need to urgently increase planting and regeneration of native forests as permanent carbon sinks and for native biodiversity is backed up by a report out today from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE), Alt-F Reset: Examining the drivers of forestry in New Zealand.

“We strongly agree with the PCE’s assessment that a ‘reset’ is needed and native trees are given greater forestry priority across Aotearoa,” says Dean Baigent-Mercer, Regional Conservation Manager for Forest & Bird.

“The report rightly questions the commercial concept of using pines as ‘permanent carbon sinks’. We believe that permanent must mean permanent for a genuine long-term draw down of carbon from the atmosphere into new native forest carbon sinks. Aotearoa is already in severe carbon debt because since human arrival in these islands, 3.4 trillion tonnes of carbon has been released as our native forests were destroyed.”

“Solutions need to be long lasting and address the entwined climate and native biodiversity crises at the same time. Flammable, short-lived, and shallow-rooted pines just don’t cut it as a permanent carbon sink,” says Mr Baigent-Mercer.

Forest & Bird welcomes the report's critical examination of the current state of forestry and its drivers, as well as its insights into the limitations and risks associated with the dominance of Pinus radiata and the current structure of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS).

“The PCE’s report underscores the need to reform the NZ ETS to manage risks from carbon forestry and to target areas that need it most – establishing permanent native forests on erodible lands,” said Mr Baigent-Mercer.

“However, the success will depend on keeping introduced browsing mammals – possums, deer, goats, pigs, and wallabies – to their lowest possible numbers over whole regions or else replanted native trees will just be eaten for lunch.

“A co-ordinated approach between the Government, councils, kaitiaki, and landholders will be essential. This is particularly critical for native forests, where effective and sustained control of introduced browsing mammals is essential to maximise carbon sequestration and allow for diverse regeneration.

“The other trap to avoid is fire risk. New Zealand needs to move from carbon sinks of flammable tree species – including pine, mānuka, and kānuka – to much more diverse and fire-resistant species. As the PCE points out on page 58, there are particular regions where native reafforestation will work better at large scale because of natural conditions. But again, this will only be successful if there is intergenerational control of possums, deer, goats, pigs, and wallabies to low numbers into the foreseeable future.

“While the report notes the current economic dominance of radiata pine, we believe that with appropriate policy signals and financial mechanisms, native afforestation can and should play a much more significant role.”

Forest & Bird urges decision-makers to go further and:

Ensure policies actively prioritise native afforestation over exotic carbon forestry, recognising the superior long-term benefits of native ecosystems.

Implement differentiated pricing within the NZ ETS to properly incentivise the longer-term investments associated with native forest establishment and management.

Significantly increase investment in science to better understand and measure carbon sequestration and emissions in native forests that were growing before 1990.

Forest & Bird looks forward to further engagement with the Government and stakeholders on the recommendations outlined in the PCE’s report and remains committed to advocating for a future where healthy native forests provide resilience to climate change for people and nature.

Read Forest & Bird’s ‘Native Forests for Climate’ paper: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/sites/default/files/2025-03/Native%20Forests%20for%20Climate%20v2.0%20for%20PDF.pdf

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