Land lies idle as foresters fear conversion

Land lies idle as foresters fear conversion

Thousands of hectares of recently deforested land is lying fallow because under the emissions trading scheme owners can’t afford to convert it to other uses.

The latest Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry deforestation survey shows that more than 5000ha of the plantation forests that were harvested in the past two years have not been replanted, the country’s carbon market specialist news service, Carbon News (www.carbonnews.co.nz) reports this morning..

Carbon News says the report for MAF also shows that without the ETS, the level of likely deforestation between 2008 and 2020 would treble, from 31,000ha to 101,000ha.

The report’s author, Dr Bruce Manley of Canterbury University’s School of Forestry, says that many owners want to change the use of their land from plantation forestry to things like farming and lifestyle blocks, but say they can’t afford to because of their carbon liability under the ETS, according to Carbon News.

The scheme requires anyone who changes the land use of pre-1990 forests to account for the carbon lost when the trees are harvested and not replanted.

New Zealand forest owners have been lobbying to have an offsets provision – under which they’re not penalised for land use change if they plant an equivalent amount of forest somewhere else – included in the scheme, but the Government says that it will not do it unless offsetting is included in international carbon accounting rules.

Manley asked major forest owners what their land-use intentions were for the period from 2008 to 2020 under three scenarios – the current ETS, no ETS, and an ETS with offsetting provisions.

Results show that with the ETS, major forest owners will deforest 19,000ha, compared to the 76,000ha they would deforest if there was no ETS. Under an ETS that allowed offsetting, they would deforest 48,000ha.

Manley says that when small forest-owners are included, the likely deforestation figures jump to 31,000ha under the ETS, 101ha without the ETS, and 67,000ha with offsetting.

He told Carbon News that many landowners are waiting to see what happens to international carbon rules and prices before making decisions on replanting or land-use changes.

Meanwhile, Climate Change Issues Minister Nick Smith says the report shows that land owners are starting to replant.

"New Zealand lost a net area of 30,500 hectares in the years from 2005 to 2008, while last year there was a small gain of 500 hectares," he said in a statement.

"I am encouraged that the survey of forest intentions is indicating net growth of 4700 hectares this year, 5700 hectares in 2011 and 7700 hectares in 2012.”

ENDS

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