Farm foresters and forest owners have welcomed the government’s decision to revive the Afforestation Grant Scheme (AGS) but both industry groups would like to see more consistency and a greater commitment to forestry in the future. Source: NZ Farmer
Newly elected president of the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association Dean Satchell, from Northland, said the Government’s forestry policy had been “shambolic in terms of consistency and at times a disincentive to new plantings”.
He said government policy had a huge effect on new plantings and farm foresters needed consistency to give them the confidence to plant more trees.
“We’re into sustainable land use and if incentives are not there for sustainable land use then it wont happen,” he said. “We expect consistency and we expect the scheme to be available annually.”
“What we also need is consistency in supply of timber and if you have spikes in planting then inevitably you will also have spikes in supply of wood into markets in 20 or 30 years time.”
Associate Primary Industries Minister Jo Goodhew has announced the reinstatement of the AGS scheme, which was responsible for 12,000 hectares of new forest plantings between 2008 and 2013 before it was axed two years ago.
The Government will offer $NZ22.5 million in grants spread over the next six years to achieve its aim of 15,000 hectares of new forest plantings by 2020. The scheme is capped at 2500 hectares of new plantings each year and grants of $NZ1300 per hectare in establishment costs will be available to eligible landowners with land parcels of between five and 300 hectares.
Minister Goodhew said the government understood forestry was a long-term game and start-up costs could be a huge barrier for landowners. The scheme was aimed at farmers and landowners who wanted to convert poor performing or erosion-prone land to a more profitable land use, she said.
The scheme opened for applications on May 27 and will close on June 30.
Mr Satchell said the revived AGS scheme launch appeared to be rushed to allow plantings to start next winter.
He also questioned whether it provided enough incentive for farmers to plant trees. “It’s not a grant at all,” he said. It was an exchange giving farmers cash up front to establish trees, but in turn they forfeited their carbon credits to the Crown for the next 10 years.
“Is that really enough of an incentive for farmers to plant trees on erosion-prone or marginal lands?” he asked. “Are the people who should be planting trees going to join our ranks and plant trees on the land that needs it?”
The New Zealand Forest Owners’ Association welcomed the new AGS scheme as “a step in the right direction” but shares farm foresters’ concerns about the stop/start nature of such incentive schemes.
The association’s technical manager Glen Mackie said, on its own, the AGS scheme would not address deforestation the industry estimated was currently running at about 7000 hectares a year.
Mackie said the industry harvested about 50,000ha of trees annually. Of this about 40,000ha was replanted. With new planting of only 3000ha this meant there was a loss of approximately 7000ha for 2014.
“What we’re concerned about is a net loss of forests of about 7000ha a year which will create a problem in future in terms of wood supply and a New Zealand carbon deficit.”
He said net afforestation was the norm in New Zealand for many decades, peaking in the 1990s.
Since then new planting had fallen to low levels and in some years, large areas of existing forest had been converted to dairying and other land uses.
“In some cases, this is because new technology and irrigation have made dairying the most valuable use for this land,” he said.
“In other cases, especially on steep hill country, plantation forests are more profitable than pastoral farming for the country and the land owner, yet land owners are not planting.
“In large part this is due to land owner fears about government and local government policy changes during the growth cycle of a forest. Because these tend to disadvantage forest owners relative to other land users, investors factor in a higher level of risk into their decision-making.
“Anything that is turned on and off doesn’t send a positive message to industry,” Mackie told the NZ Farmer.
“We’d prefer to see far more positive large-scale initiatives for foresters.”
“We would like the Government to put a lot more thought into what its policies are for forestry,” he said. “At the moment they are just playing around the edges. We’d like to see a national policy for plantation forestry in New Zealand.”
“Commercial forestry has the potential to make a very much bigger contribution to the economy and the environment,” he said. “We therefore urge the government to take a more holistic and long-term approach to its forestry-related policies so that land owners and investors have the confidence to invest for the long-term.”
The AGS scheme’s cap of 2500 hectares of new forest each year for five years was too little to have much effect on wood supply in relation to the national plantation forestry estate of about 1.7 million hectares, he said.
“This is squarely aimed at pastoral farmers on steep erosion-prone land where the economics of production forestry might be marginal. It is an endorsement of the environmental attributes of forestry and will doubtless make a useful contribution to erosion prevention and the country’s carbon ledger.”
He said there were safety and environmental challenges involved in harvesting forests on steep erosion-prone terrain.
“So we also welcome the government’s role in helping to fund research into steep country harvesting, as well as in trialling alternative species that may perform better than radiata pine in terms of maintaining the stability of hillsides in the three or four years following harvest.”
