Alt-F Reset – Examining the drivers of forestry in NZ

The future shape of New Zealand’s forests will reflect today’s policies, just as past policies created the forests we see today.

In this report, Alt-F Reset: Examining the drivers of forestry in New Zealand, the Commissioner discusses how current policies are shaping our forest estate and looks at which alternative forestry systems could play a greater role in afforestation.

He warns that New Zealand needs to take a long, hard look at our current approach and ask whether we are establishing the forests we want in the long run. “Our policies, particularly settings under the current New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, are driving a wave of land use change to carbon forestry with significant environmental, economic and social risks,” he says.

He emphasises that forests planted for timber production continue to have an important role to play in New Zealand. “In places where they can be safely harvested, production forests are the backbone of an important industry. Because the people who plant them intend to harvest them, they have every incentive to look after them,” he says.

The report also outlines the risks and benefits of various alternative forestry systems, including large-scale native afforestation and management regimes such as continuous cover harvesting. It identifies some of the key barriers to establishing these systems and suggests ways to address them.

The Commissioner has provided a series of recommendations in response to issues raised during this enquiry. These include:

• reforming the NZ ETS by phasing out forestry offsets for fossil emissions
• creating a separate biogenic methane trading scheme that allows for forestry offsets.
• reforming the permanent forest category of the NZ ETS (if other recommendations relating to NZ ETS reform are not accepted)
• ensuring that Māori are engaged from the outset in any reframing of forestry policies
• ensuring better management of the long-term threats and financial risks to the forestry estate
• banning clear-fell harvest in high-risk areas – noting that these areas need to be better identified and mapped
• ensuring that forestry companies cover the costs of environmental damage they cause
• reviewing regulations that disincentivise native afforestation
• focusing future afforestation schemes on both successful establishment and long-term maintenance
• ensuring that alternative forestry systems are given greater weighting in any future prioritisation of environment and forestry-related research.

Read the full report or summary.

Source & image credit: Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment