No to pines
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).
The new report, ‘Alt-F Reset: Examining the drivers of forestry in New Zealand’, says that radiata pine is really the only economical tree for carbon farming.
However, it could leave the Crown with future carbon liabilities if they’re damaged by pests, disease, fire or extreme weather events.
Even climate scientists are anti-pine, one saying “the PCE, Simon Upton, is uniquely qualified to provide impartial strategic guidance on New Zealand Forests.
We should be grateful for this as climate virtue signaling and perverse carbon incentives threaten to radically change our rural landscapes in a widespread and visually jarring fashion”.
The key takeaway from the PCE’s advice is ‘‘no to carbon forestry!’
