Funding boost to tackle erosion

Sustainable Land Management cash will be used to protect Northland hills like these from erosion. Photo/NRC

Northland has been awarded more than $650,000 for regional projects protecting erosion-prone hill country.

The money will be provided to the Northland Regional Council (NRC) over four years from the Sustainable Land Management Hill Country Erosion Programme, administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The funding will help Kaipara soil conservation projects, including Kaipara Harbour sediment issues contributing to a decline in ecosystem health.

Northland Regional Council chairman Bill Shepherd said the cash would be used to support the council's work with landowners. Likely initiatives would include hill country farm plans, prepared by the regional council land management team, to help owners target soil conservation through measures such as afforestation of land and planting of poplars and willows.

Cr Shepherd said while previously, the available funding had gone to other regions, this time Northland had received a 15 per cent share "an excellent outcome considering the fund had been oversubscribed nationally.

"Together with the Government's recently relaunched Afforestation Grant Scheme, which will see $19.5 million made available nationwide over the next five years to subsidise the planting of forests on erosion-prone land, there's currently a great deal of support available for erosion control."

Afforestation Grant Scheme applicants previously had to plant new forests of between 5ha and 300ha on their land when more than 12,000ha of new forest was planted nationally between 2008 and 2013.

The relaunched scheme will allocate grants at the rate of $1300 a hectare, with the objective of allowing recipients to start planting in winter next year.

The Kaipara is New Zealand's largest harbour and is valued for cultural, recreational, commercial and environmental reasons. It is a nursery for many species (including about 98 per cent of the snapper found on the west coast) and is important to commercial and recreational fishers. The Kaipara Harbour catchment encompasses 474,000ha of land, 17 per cent of it hill country with high erosion risk.

The NRC application for the Sustainable Land Management grant was supported by the Auckland Council and the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group (IKHMG), which brings together hapu, councils, research agencies, farmers, fishers and other users to promote integrated management of the Kaipara Harbour and catchment.

IKHMG spokeswoman Deborah Harding said harbour sediment deposition rates were 10 times higher than pre-European levels and impacts included smothering of shellfish beds, loss of sea grass and reduced water clarity.

Meanwhile, a review to increase uptake for the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative is under way and the Government is seeking feedback from industry on the proposed changes.

Introduced in 2006, the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative was the first national scheme that allowed forest landowners to earn emissions units for the carbon stored within their forests.

It resulted in 16,000ha of land going into permanent forest and its administration is being improved to make it more appealing to landowners.

-More information about the scheme and the proposed changes is on the Ministry for Primary Industries website: www.mpi.govt.nz/pfsiconsultation