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Labour Party Forestry spokesperson Stuart Nash.
If elected next term, Labour says it will require resource consent for any conversion of highly productive farmland into forestry.
Labour Party Forestry spokesperson Stuart Nash said food producing soil will take priority over planting trees to meet climate change challenges.
“Within the first six months of the next term of government, we will revise the National Environment Standards for Plantation Forestry to enable councils to once again determine what classes of land can be used for plantation and carbon forests.”
“Resource consent would be required for plantation or carbon forests on Land Use Capability Classes 1-5 – often known as elite soils – above a threshold of 50 hectares per farm to allow farmers flexibility in creating small plantations to support environmental goals,” said Nash.
Labour Party rural communities spokesperson Kieran McAnulty says 90% of forestry planting for ETS purpose happens on less productive soils in classes 6-8.
McAnulty says Labour wants to ensure all planting happens away from valuable soils in classes 1-5.
“Forestry is not bad: we need the right tree in the right place, but we also need the right mechanism to ensure this,” said McAnulty.
New Zealand has approximately 12.1 million hectares in farmland and 1.7m in forestry.
Labour says 22,000 hectares of farmland was converted to forestry in 2019, a figure conflicting with Beef + Lamb New Zealand, who claim about 70,000 hectares of productive sheep and beef land has been converted to forestry since 2019.
Recent widespread autumn rain will have triggered the germination of subterranean clover seeds, and the resulting seedlings should be allowed to reach the 3–4 trifoliate leaf stage before grazing, says Beef+Lamb NZ.
OPINION: Forests planted for carbon credits are permanently locking up NZ’s landscapes, and could land us with more carbon costs, says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE).
Forests planted for carbon credits are permanently locking up NZ’s landscapes, and could land us with more carbon costs, says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE).
A hub farm in each of Beef + Lamb NZ’s seven regions and more focus groups are being rolled out for the red meat sector this year.
Red meat farmers are warning that wholesale conversion of farms into forestry to achieve climate change targets will be unsustainable for the country.
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DairyNZ subsidiary New Zealand Animal Evaluation (NZAEL) will update the genetic base used to calculate Breeding Worth (BW) next month.
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