Latest news with #ForestryConversions
Otago Daily Times
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Claim too late for farm-to-forestry ban
Dean Rabbidge. Photo: ODT files The farm-to-forest ban passed its first reading last week but a Southland Federated Farmers executive says it is too late, the damage has been done and is continuing. Executive member and farmer Dean Rabbidge said since the ban's announcement on December 4, there had been a rush to convert arable land into forests. "If anything, we've only seen an acceleration of it since December 4 with people knowing that this is their last chance," he said. The sheep, beef and dairy farmer said after pulling pines out of his own property he had realised the damage the conifers did to the soil. "It's taking a lot of work to get it back into productive land through fertiliser and seed and stuff," he said. Pine needles were quite toxic and did not let anything else grow, he said. The farms that had been converted to forestry would have had soil that was at the optimum level for animal health and pasture production, he said. "[The soil] has been cared for and looked after for maximum food production values, and now we're just planting it in pine trees." The ban, or the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme — Forestry Conversions) Amendment Bill, will include exemptions. After the first reading, Minister for Agriculture Todd McClay said investors who were able to prove intent to afforest between January 2021 and December 4 would be exempt from the ban. This exemption, which was part of the December 4 announcement, was clarified by the minister. Mr McClay said the combination of buying land and ordering of trees prior to December 4 would be an example of proof of a qualifying investment. He said each of these actions alone would not. This exemption has been a source of confusion for concerned farmers, who have said the grey area of "evidence of intent" opened up a loophole that has been exploited. Mr Rabbidge said the grey area remained and his organisation would continue to hold government ministers to account over this issue. "There's still been some very, very questionable land purchases go on recently under the guise of, hey, we had seedlings ordered — that was their intent to plant. "We're still going to keep the pressure on the government to make sure that all the loopholes are closed." The Wyndham farmer said the rapid conversion was visible to those living rurally, but it would take a while for urban residents to recognise the effect. "It's far too late, but people are finally waking up to the damage that forestry, both production and carbon, is doing to the rural sector."
Scoop
24-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Farm-To-Forest Ban Passes First Reading
The Government has taken a major step towards protecting food production by ending the large-scale conversion of productive farmland into pine plantations, with the first reading of the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme—Forestry Conversions) Amendment Bill receiving unanimous support in Parliament last night. 'This Bill is about protecting our most valuable land that grows food for export and sustains rural communities,' Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay says. 'For too long, ETS incentives have driven the wrong outcomes for our rural sector.' 'Once farms are planted in trees as a result of carbon credits we lose the ability to produce the high-quality safe food that consumers demand – and we lose rural jobs, export earnings, and the families that go with them. Today we are putting a stop to the harm that this has done to rural New Zealand.' The Bill will: Prevent exotic forests from entering the ETS on LUC 1–5 land (New Zealand's most productive soil); Limit new ETS registrations on LUC 6 land to 15,000 hectares per year, allocated by ballot; Allow up to 25 per cent of a farm to go into the ETS, preserving landowner choice while ending full-farm conversions; Protect eligible Māori-owned land, and provide time-limited exemptions for pre-announced investments. The Bill includes temporary exemptions where an investor can provide evidence of a qualifying forestry investment between 1 January 2021 and 4 December 2024 . For instance, the purchase of land and ordering of trees prior to 4 December 2024 would be an example of proof of a qualifying investment, whilst each of these actions alone would not. 'The last Government sat back while 300,000 hectares of farmland were sold off for carbon credits. That short-sighted policy puts ideology ahead of long-term food security. We're reversing that damage.' The new settings will take effect from 4 December 2024, with the law coming fully into force in October 2025.
