Give us the credit, say foresters

Forest owners want the Government to encourage them to plant more trees rather than spend millions of dollars buying carbon credits overseas to meet New Zealand's Kyoto obligations.

Roger Dickie, who has 25,000ha of forest on the East Coast, said he would have been planting between 600-800ha of forest a year, but because the Government had decided not to grant forest owners Kyoto credits he had not planted any for three years.

The foresters have asked politicians across the board to endorse policies they say will help New Zealand meet its Kyoto targets.

Mr Dickie is president of the Kyoto Forestry Association, one of the forest owner groups that have presented six policies they want all political parties to endorse.

Forestry will play a key part in any rational climate change package, but policy development had to happen now, Peter Berg, NZ Forest Owners' Association (NZFOA), said.

"It will take two years for forest owners to gear up for major new plantings and a further three or four years for young trees to start sequestering significant quantities of carbon."

The campaign has the support of the NZFOA, the Federation of Maori Authorities, the Kyoto Forestry Association and the NZ Farm Forestry Association organisations, which represent the vast majority of NZ forest owners.

Mr Berg said New Zealand had a choice.

"In order to balance our carbon ledger we can start buying carbon credits from other countries like Russia now, or we can adopt policies which recognise the value created by forest owners when their trees store carbon.

"I think most New Zealanders would think the choice was simple," he said.

The forest owners are seeking cross-party political endorsement for six policy points. "Forest owners can help New Zealand meet its Kyoto obligations saving many hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the process if they financially benefit from the services they provide to the environment," Mr Berg said.

Forestry Minister Jim Anderton, welcomed the ideas for climate change policy but said it was "unreasonable to expect instant answers".

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY