Carbon farming: Ruapehu mayor calls on new Government to provide assurance for rural councils

Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton wants assurance on productive farmland protection from the new Government. Photo / RDC

Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton is hopeful the new Government will introduce additional controls over carbon farming to “address the threats posed to productive farmland”.

He’s also called for changes to the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry.

“In response to calls for urgent action to address the threats posed to productive farmland and communities from the rapid pace of carbon conversions Labour developed new national standards to enable councils to manage carbon farming at a local level,” he said.

“While the [standard] changes are welcome there are concerns that to activate the new tools for managing carbon forests we need to make changes to our district plan which will take time and could be costly.”

Kirton said any changes to the district plan rules to control where new commercial forests - including carbon forests - were located needed to be developed in consultation with communities and any changes able to be challenged in court by stakeholder interests which could extend the timeframes and cost.

“These issues could mean that changes on the ground may not be as quick as many would like,” he said.

“National promised to ban foreign investment in farms being converted to forestry for carbon farming which we would like to see implemented as soon as possible. We would also like to see changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme settings preventing polluters from being able to offset 100 per cent of their emissions through carbon credits.”

Kirton said council staff were working to understand the new standards and how they can be administered in relation to the council’s current policy and planning rules. Staff would also be looking at any district plan changes and timeframes for consultation on the standards.

“There is quite a lot of work involved in getting to a point where we would be ready to consult.

“At this stage, the earliest this is likely will be as part of next year’s long-term plan around March or April,” he said.

Kirton said he would be raising the issue again for discussion with central North Island councils at the next Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) regional meeting in November.