The Hon Jo Goodhew
The New Zealand Government this week confirmed a multi-million dollar reboot of the popular Afforestation Grant Scheme (AGS), Associate Primary Industries Minister Jo Goodhew says. Sources: Timberbiz, Radio New Zealand, Stuff NZ, New Zealand Herald
The new version of the scheme will see $NZ22.5 million invested over the next six years to encourage the planting of an expected 15,000 hectares of new forest.
“The new scheme will take up where its highly successful predecessor left off,” Mrs Goodhew says. “Farmers and landowners can again use the AGS to make better use of marginal land and increase farming diversification.”
Under the previous scheme, from 2008 to 2013, more than 12,000 hectares of new forest was planted, much of it on erosion prone land. This improved water quality and reduced the impact of severe flooding.
“Increased forest planting under the previous AGS also led to an additional 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide stored in our forests, mitigating climate change and counting towards New Zealand’s national emission reduction targets,” Mrs Goodhew says.
“Over the lifecycle of these trees, from planting through to harvesting, we expect the AGS to make a significant contribution to the forestry industry and support services, increase jobs and help grow our regional economies across New Zealand.”
MPI will manage the scheme with support from regional councils and iwi, which will help identify under-utilised land best suited for forest planting.
The announcement delivers on an election promise made by National last year. Successful applicants will receive $NZ1300 per hectare for new forest planting, with priority given to applications addressing environmental issues such as erosion.
Applications for the scheme will open on May 27 and close on 30 June 2015. This will ensure enough time to factor in the growing and ordering of seedlings and necessary land preparation before planting in winter 2016.
Applications are open from 27 May until the end of June 2015. This would ensure enough time to factor in the growing and ordering of seedlings and necessary land preparation before planting in winter 2016.
FOA technical manager Glen Mackie said the $NZ1300 per ha amount would approximately equate to the cost of establishing a hectare of forest, provided there were no additional costs such as fencing, or spraying to clear the land of gorse or pasture.
Forest Owners Association technical manager Glen Mackie said the scheme was aimed at pastoral farmers on steep land, where the economics of production forestry might be marginal.
“It’s a positive initiative to actually get land that is actually better suited to forestry – get it out of other uses, where it may actually have issues with erosion or other environmental problems or so forth, and get it into a higher productive use.”
But Mr Mackie said the government could ensure far more forests were planted if it fixed what the association described as the “dysfunctional” Emissions Trading Scheme.
“The problems with the Emissions Trading Scheme are definitely holding back potential new plantings and we would like to see those issues addressed,” he said.
“Under the scheme, up to 2500 hectares of new forest will be planted a year.
“If this is offset against current annual deforestation – based on industry estimates of around 10,000 hectares a year – the annual decline in planted forest area will fall to 7500 hectares a year.”
In return for the grants, recipients have to forfeit their carbon credits to the Crown for up to a decade. Landowners can currently claim the credits for storing carbon in their forests.
