Rainforest Conservation Junkie Finalist in Awards

Media Release Rainforest Conservation Junkie Finalist in Sustainable Business Network Awards

Takaka-based environmental consultant Sean Weaver of Carbon Partnership Ltd has been announced as a finalist in this year’s national NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards.

Mr Weaver is a long time proponent of innovative forms of environmental finance and specialises in “payments for ecosystem services” for rainforest protection. His recent work in forest conservation finance in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands led to him being named as a finalist in Restorative-Innovation category at this year’s SBN awards.

“People who own rainforests on private or communally-owned land usually need to use their forests for economic development. This is a very common economic driver for rainforest degradation and deforestation. Instead of seeing these landowners as the enemy, I work with them to find ways to meet their economic development needs without them having to log their forests.”

When environmental markets were established a few years ago Mr Weaver could see a way to help landowners earn a living by selling carbon assets or ‘ecosystem-service certificates’ instead of selling timber and putting their forests into long term protection.

Mr Weaver works in the international voluntary carbon market instead of the Kyoto markets like the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. This is because he works with rainforests that are not covered by these markets.

“When the Kyoto Protocol forestry rules were negotiated back in 2000, they chucked rainforests into the ‘too hard’ basket. That made people like me go rummaging around finding nuts we thought we could crack using the voluntary offset market and other ecosystem markets.”

Time is of the essence in many countries, said Mr Weaver.

“There’s no time to lose – it's a race against the clock. Basically, there isn’t enough money in the global public sector to save world rainforests. The vast majority of the money on the planet is in the hands of the private sector. To leverage that finance we need to use carrots as well as regulatory sticks. It’s all about designing keys to unlock new money for an old problem.”

Sean’s passion for rainforests is the key driver for his work. “I get a kick out of saving rainforests,” said Mr Weaver. “I started experimenting with saving rainforests in my early 20s and now, 25 years later, I’m still hooked. The problem is that I need to continually find ways to finance my habit.”

ENDS

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