KEY POINTS:
The forestry sector's opposition to the Government's proposed climate change policy in relation to trees steps up to a new level today.
The Kyoto Forestry Owners Association will launch a series of newspaper advertisements to coincide with a series of 13 regional meetings by officials to seek feedback on a Government discussion paper released in December.
Sources said the paper had united the more activist Kyoto Forestry Association with more conservative parts of the sector as chiefly represented by the owners association.
The paper proposed a levy on the owners of forests planted before 1990 if they converted the land to other uses.
This, and the Government's policy of retaining the ownership of carbon credits generated under the Kyoto Protocol, has annoyed many in the sector.
Forestry officials will hold their first meeting in Gisborne tomorrow and adverts placed in the local newspaper - the Gisborne Herald - will proclaim: "The carbon credit thieves are coming."
The adverts will call on local forest owners and investors to reject the Government's proposals.
Some in the sector are also cynical no meetings are planned in Auckland or Wellington, where most of those with investments in forestry live.
Despite the opposition to the plans, the Government has shown no signs of changing its mind.
In December, Climate Change Minister David Parker said the proposed deforestation cost, when land was switched out of forestry, might take the form of a charge for "all or some" of the liability under Kyoto rules.
Some have estimated that cutting down a mature stand of trees is equivalent to emitting 800 tonnes of carbon dioxide a hectare, which at present prices on international markets where emission rights are traded would cost around $13,000.
On the issue of carbon credits, Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton has argued that there should be no windfall profit for those who knew little about climate change or Kyoto when they planted their trees.
He believes that handing over the credits to forest owners would be the equivalent of privatising the profit of climate change policy, while nationalising the pain.
The debate over forestry policy comes as deforestation in New Zealand continues to pick up speed.
Many are converting forestry land to other uses such as dairy farming because of the low returns from lumber.
- NZPA
