60 | FORESTRY New Zealand Forest Owners Association ”But like the Ag sector, we don’t want to see land that could be in production not in production.” Carbon price encourages afforestation Richard Loader Tall timber: New Zealand has 1.7 million hectares in plantation forestry. David Rhodes, Chief Executive of New Zealand Forest Owners Association (NZFOA) says as the price of carbon has increased it has encouraged new afforestation. While much of the new forestry is for future wood production, a consequence of carbon’s rising value has been increased interest in carbon farming without intent of production. The interest in forestry and carbon, including carbon farming, has been stimulated by the Climate Change Commission which drew the line, saying New Zealand needed 380,000 new hectares of plantation forestry and 300,000 hectares of new native forestry by 2035 to meet its international obligations to reduce carbon emissions. David says while the goal is lofty, the Commission’s level of new forestry is more conservative than what previous independent bodies suggested because the Commission wants more emphasis placed on emissions reduction rather than sequestration. “At the moment I think we’re tracking about right and the planting level will be up next year if we can get enough labour. But to maintain that level and reach 380,000 new hectares by 2035 it will take quite a sustained effort.” New Zealand currently has 1.7 million hectares in plantation forestry, of which around 1.2 million is in large-scale corporate forestry (10,000 ha and over) and another 500,000 hectares in smaller forests and woodlots. Māori are increasingly significant owners. David says that while a carbon policy is needed to drive additional forestry in the medium term to ensure New Zealand has any hope of meeting international targets, ultimately we need to change the way we live and move away from fossil fuel consumption. He says forestry is a transitionary measure and that is where NZFOA is concerned about carbon farming without intent of production because it has created angst within the rural/ agricultural sector. “The rural community is worried that the land is no longer going to be in productive use, whether that’s sheep, beef or forestry — anything. All of a sudden you’re going to have land planted in trees and other than carbon it’s not going to be doing anything else. You won’t have employment either.” NZFOA’s position is that there are places where carbon farming is legitimate because the land might not be useful for anything else, or it might be too far from a port or a processing factory, so the option should not be foreclosed. “I think that’s the case particularly for a lot of Māori land that hasn’t been developed,” says David. ”But like the Ag sector, we don’t want to see land that could be in production not in production.” Established 100 years ago at the very birth of New Zealand’s plantation forest industry, NZFOA has a proud history of guiding and advocating for its members from the top of the North to the bottom of the South. With a membership of around 200 plantation forest owners, including all the major corporate forest owners, NZFOA is one of the longer serving primary industry entities. David sees a promising future for New Zealand forestry and the role that it has to play in New Zealand’s economy, pointing to the ITP (Industry Transformation Plan) which is being coordinated by Te Uru Rakau – New Zealand Forest Service — and is forestry’s piece of the jigsaw that sits within the Government’s ‘Fit for a Better World’ vision. “The idea is that post Covid all primary sectors can do significantly better and lift their export earnings. Forestry, horticulture and seafood are seen as having the greatest potential – collectively an additional 7.4 billion, and significantly more than dairy, sheep and beef at 2.7 billion. “Forestry’s contribution should come in the form of greater on-shore processing, and a lot more use of wood in construction — as that gives you carbon in the buildings as well as the trees. It also gives you a more sustainable product. “At the moment we’re processing all the logs on-shore that we can but if we want to tap into some of the wood that is currently going off-shore as logs to China then we need more capacity full stop. “There is untapped potential in New Zealand building, but ultimately we want to be looking at exporting finished products. Also we need to look at processing that can utilise some of the industrial grade logs that are currently not favoured by New Zealand mills, because there is plenty of that available.” There is also the whole bio-energy side that comes with forestry and the idea there is we need to utilise forestry on-shore and get away from the reliance on fossil fuels. While David acknowledges change won’t happen overnight he says there are already promising signs with players making significant investment commitments. “Fonterra for example are getting into forestry using bio-energy to fuel their boilers, rather than fossil fuels.” David Rhodes, NZFOA chief executive.
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