Carbon Farming Concerns Threaten Future Of Sustainable Forestry

Concerns about the legitimacy of permanent exotic forest carbon farming projects threaten the future of sustainable forestry, Ekos chief executive Dr Sean Weaver says.

“Both native and exotic forests are part of the winning formula that will make carbon farming projects economic. There is a very real risk of Aotearoa New Zealand rejecting restorative carbon farming through policy settings that tar all permanent forest carbon projects – and we could take down sustainable forestry as collateral damage,” he says.

“The 2021 Climate Commission report recommended nearly 300,000 ha of new native forest by 2035 to meet our carbon target under the Paris Agreement. We also need hundreds of thousands of hectares of reforestation to build climate resilient landscapes in erosion prone areas.

“That’s a price tag in the billions, and grant funding won’t make a dent. The investment needed means carbon farming projects need to be profitable and able to service debt, Sean Weaver says.

“We know from the work Ekos has done pioneering native restorative forest carbon farming that to make the numbers work, sometimes some rocket fuel in the carbon engine in the form of exotic forestry is needed – albeit just enough to make the project economic.

“When we do that, about a fifth of the project area is exotic and the rest native. The smaller exotic portion is actively managed and replanted with natives on a five-year cycle so it all ends up in native forest longer-term. Genuinely restorative carbon farming is a very real solution,” Sean Weaver says.

“We also work with farmers to help them change land-use on areas that are difficult to farm and often only marginally profitable. Poor environmental outcomes, including sediments lost into streams affecting water quality and aquatic life can be overlooked.

“Ideally, these areas are best managed as forest in a mosaic of pastoralism and forestry in our hill country. We want to help make these lands profitable and sustainable through carbon farming and smart woodlots.”

“It’s not a turf war of farms versus forests – for us it’s a middle path of working together to deliver a better future,” Sean Weaver says.

Sean Weaver

Dr Sean Weaver is an expert in environmental financing and indigenous forest carbon markets.

He is pioneering market-based models for sustainable land management in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. He has consulted to the World Bank, African Development Bank, the Pacific Community, Pacific Island governments, central and local government in New Zealand, as well as businesses, universities and community organisations.

He is a former Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies and Geography at Victoria University of Wellington and the University of the South Pacific and has a PhD in Forestry.

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