Last week I attended a hui with the Ministries for the Environment and Agriculture and Forestry and their presentation to Maori landowners on the emission trading scheme and New Zealand's future international climate change commitments.
Climate change is happening now. And it was only in the past year that the sceptics
were vociferous in their denial of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' when it screened in cinemas around the world.
At the weekend Mr Gore received a Nobel Peace prize for bringing to attention, the cataclysmic climate change that is gathering storm momentum as the Polar caps melt.
Thinking global, acting local is a term well used, but now we get to understand it better.
Planting exotic or native trees plays a critical role in managing our carbon footprint. It also helps us to adapt to climate change by reducing erosion and flooding.
Cutting down trees releases carbon which they've soaked up during the growth period. Deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions globally and in New Zealand if trees are not replanted or if the land is converted for another use. And this is where climate change is the new big business. All forest owners entering the emissions trading scheme will receive emissions units which they will be able to sell through the emissions trading scheme trading arrangements. Under the government's new partnership programme with the agriculture and forestry sectors (called the Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Plan of Action) there will also be the option of cash grants to encourage new planting by land owners. Other initiatives under the Plan of Action will complement the emissions trading scheme, and include more research, technology transfer, encouraging more use of wood products, and bioenergy.
The MoE and MAF are travelling the country speaking to interested landowners and information is available through their websites.
The Taranaki Regional Council's story this week tells of the lowland podocarp forest that once used to cover the region. The Whangamomona Saddle is a fine example of lowland podocarp with beech at the top.
It pays to plant trees, to sustain our lands and save the planet.
