Federated Farmers meat & wool chair Toby Williams, who farms at Whāngārā.
Federated Farmers meat & wool chair Toby Williams, who farms at Whāngārā.
Federated Farmers’ “Save our Sheep” campaign has taken a major step forward this week with the Government introducing legislation to stop carbon forestry on productive farmland.
“This legislation is a really positive step forward, but from a farmer’s perspective, it’s long overdue,” Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williamssaid.
Several productive farms in Tairāwhiti are to be planted in pine trees following recent farm purchases.
“The Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture stood up on a stage in Gore at a Federated Farmers event on December 4 last year and announced these changes would be coming,” Williams said.
“Since that announcement was made, farmers have been incredibly frustrated as we’ve watched tens of thousands of hectares of productive land continue to be planted in pines.
“The Government have been very clear on their intention, but a lack of action has caused huge uncertainty and heartache for farmers and rural communities.”
The Save our Sheep platform has been getting plenty of traction in recent weeks through a viral social media campaign and a strategically placed billboard directly opposite the Beehive.
“The Emissions Trading Scheme [ETS] has been screwing the scrum in favour of forestry over farming by subsidising pine trees to offset fossil fuel emissions,” Williams said.
“These new restrictions will put the squeeze on wholesale pine planting driven by carbon returns, but won’t hinder genuine production forestry or smaller farm woodlots.
“Federated Farmers aren’t anti-forestry. Exotic trees have a place and a role to play when it comes to sensible land use and income diversification. But carbon forestry is out of control.”
Williams said farmers would be raising serious questions about 15,000ha of LUC 6 farmland being allocated by a ballot process each year.
“That is a huge amount of land still going into pine trees and that’s what farmers will currently be using as breeding country. We can’t afford to lose 150,000 hectares in the next decade.
The Save Our Sheep campaign has had a boost with news the Government is introducing legislation to stop carbon forestry taking over productive farmland. Photo / Michael Craig
“You can’t plant that land in pine trees while maintaining a sustainable sheep industry. We would lose more than 750,000 breeding ewes if that were to happen.”
Federated Farmers was more positive about the clause ensuring 25 per cent of LUC 1-6 land would be registered against the property’s title to restrict further planting as a result of subdivision.
However, Williams said Federated Farmers still had serious concerns about exploitation of loopholes and the impact of “badly broken ETS rules” on rural communities.
“The statement from the Government ... says the time-limited transitional exemptions under ‘intention to plant’ rules are for ‘rare cases’ only.
“I’m not convinced these criteria are anywhere near tight enough, particularly when it comes to things like the purchase of seedlings when the forester didn’t already own the land to plant.
“If you didn’t own the land with a clear intention to plant it for carbon forestry before the announcement on December 4 last year, you should be told ‘sorry, but you’re out of luck’.”
“As the legislation is currently written, simply having purchased seedlings is enough to show intent even if they didn’t own land to plant them on.”
That was “simply nonsense” and needed to be changed, Williams said.
Alongside restrictions on whole farm conversions to pine trees for carbon farming, Federated Farmers has also called for sweeping reforms of the forestry sector.
“Pine forests are breeding grounds for pests like pigs and deer that are causing huge issues for farmers and costing us a fortune,” Williams said.
“To put it bluntly, foresters simply aren’t doing enough pest management to get the issue under control, and it’s time for the Government to step in.”
Urgent changes needed to be made to the Overseas Investment Act, he said.
“Applications to purchase farmland to convert to forestry should be assessed under the farmland test rather than the general benefit to New Zealand test.
“This would mean that applications from oversees investors to purchase land for forestry would be on an even playing field with other land purchases.
“Some of the applications we’re seeing approved at the moment are absolutely appalling and will have little or no benefit for New Zealand or our rural communities.”
Williams said they also wanted changes to the ETS to end the ability of carbon dioxide emitters to offset 100% of their emissions with emissions units from carbon farming.
“New Zealand is the only country in the world that allows 100% carbon offsetting through forestry, with other countries recognising the risk and putting restrictions in place.”
Federated Farmers is calling on the Government to “urgently review the ETS and fix the rules to either limit or stop the offsetting of fossil fuel emissions with forestry”.
