New Zealand: Forestry
Foresters have high hopes for Kyoto proposal
9 Dec 2008
New Zealand foresters will soon be able to gauge international reaction to their push for key changes to the regulations for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
Wairarapa pine planters mourn loss of ETS millions
9 Dec 2008
Wairarapa’s long-established pine forests would have generated the best part of $5 million for their owners if the emissions trading scheme had gone ahead, says carbon trader Greenair.
At last, forest owners get a date with the minister
9 Dec 2008
Representatives from the forestry industry will finally have an opportunity to put their concerns over delays to the emissions trading scheme to the new Minister for Climate Change Issues, Nick Smith, in person this week.
World listens to NZ forest owners' Kyoto case
5 Dec 2008
New Zealand forest owners have made a key advance in their efforts to advocate for Kyoto Protocol regulations to be altered to allow for land-use change.
Wait for trading road to clear, foresters told
5 Dec 2008
Forest owners are being advised to wait out the current period of emissions trading uncertainty amid calls for the carbon trading sector to be regulated.
Foresters fear trading advice is a waste of time
2 Dec 2008
The forestry industry fears that the wrong kind of advice is stepping in to fill the vacuum left by the new government as forest owners struggle to come to terms with what New Zealand’s potential emissions trading turn-around might mean.
Forest owners to confront new minister with facts
25 Nov 2008
Forest owners expect to meet the new Minister for Climate Change Issues Nick Smith later this week to tell him what National and Act’s agreement to review and potentially scrap the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is costing the industry.
Don't panic, emissions expert tells NZUs sellers
25 Nov 2008
There are still opportunities for foresters looking to sell NZUs, says Kensington Swan partner Bryan Gundersen.
ETS delay deal scuppers forestry project worth millions
18 Nov 2008
A $125 million forestry project has been scrapped and scores of forestry jobs lost as a result of a deal between the Act and the new National government to review the emissions trading scheme.
EXCLUSIVE: Forest owners make Kyoto advance
4 Nov 2008
The Forest Owners' Association has made a major international advance in its push to get forest-offsetting and other issues included in Kyoto Protocol regulations.
Nervous foresters: We don't want policy flip-flops
31 Oct 2008
Foresters awaiting regulations due to released at the end of the year in order to make firm calculations of their carbon credits and liabilities fear that a new government might turn the existing policy on its head.
Forest owners could benefit from weak carbon prices
28 Oct 2008
Falling world carbon prices could work to the advantage of New Zealand forest owners.
We're wasting our wood resource, says biofuel innovator
14 Oct 2008
A world-leading New Zealand innovator says he despairs over the country's inertia when it comes to using its abundant wood waste resource.
Nats vow to sweep new broom through forest industry
26 Sep 2008
National hopes to sweep a new broom through the forestry sector, promising changes to the Resource Management Act, pushing for offsetting to be included in the Kyoto Protocol, and creating open, regular dialogue between the government and industry.
ANALYSIS: Our future under K2 bleak without forestry
26 Sep 2008
The release of the National Party’s forestry policy has received a warm reception from the sector, with the New Zealand Forest Owner’s Association applauding the party for listening to the industry.
Market readies as NZUs about to go on line
23 Sep 2008
Excitement is mounting on the trading markets as NZUs (New Zealand units) are about to go live.
Promises, promises ... but what are the costs, asks forester
19 Sep 2008
The “Cassandra of carbon trading” says that the ETS-era is characterised with promises of rewards, yet riddled with unknown costs to achieve them.
ETS picture becoming clearer for forest owners
16 Sep 2008
The forestry sector will know precisely how to participate in the emissions trading scheme when the forestry stakeholder reference group meets with MAF at the end of the month.
Forest owners: Problems have not gone away
12 Sep 2008
The treatment of pre-1990 forests under the emissions trading scheme will emerge again as a major issue, warns the New Zealand Forest Owners’ Association.
Forest owners first to feel effects of ETS
11 Sep 2008
Forest owners will be the first New Zealanders into the emissions trading scheme - with the first entering within 10 weeks.
Parker: Not the time to move on offset planting
5 Sep 2008
Allowing land-owners to transfer forestry blocks to marginal land now would shoot New Zealand’s long-term international interests in the foot, says Climate Change Minister David Parker
Govt: ETS forestry compo benefits large number of iwi
5 Sep 2008
The Government claims a large number of iwi believe the compensation package under the emissions trading scheme gives them a net benefit rather than a net cost.
Carbon credit sharing fails to impress wood processors
29 Aug 2008
Sharing carbon credits around is not enough of a remedy for wood processors bracing themselves for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.
Greenair: Forestry carbon opportunities are real
12 Aug 2008
Greenair Group has entered the Wairarapa-Manawatu debate over get-rich-quick interests seeking to take advantage of regional farmers and foresters through carbon credit schemes.
Forester warns farmers of get-rich-quick carbon hucksters
5 Aug 2008
A forester is warning landowners to beware of “hucksters” pushing get-rich-quick schemes based on carbon trading.
We'll fight for our forest rights, owners warn ETS policy-makers
25 Jul 2008
Kyoto Forest Owners say they will wage war if either major political party reneges on promises over carbon credits worth millions of dollars.
ANALYSIS: Heavy emitters and National scoring major own goal
25 Jul 2008
The little-covered press release issued by the Kyoto Forestry Association this week, seeking major-party assurances its members will still get hundreds of millions of dollars worth of carbon credits, speaks of the unspeakable position anti-emissions trading campaigners have got themselves and others into.
REACTION: NZ emission scheme should pick up some Aussie ideas, say forest owners
16 Jul 2008
Forest owners have welcomed the release by the Australian Government of its preferred policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Paper giant might fold and flee if NZ emissions scheme 'hostile'
8 Jul 2008
International paper giant Norske Skog might quit New Zealand if it is confronted by what it regards as a hostile emissions regime, sources say.
Forest owners urge NZ to follow Garnaut carbon storage action
8 Jul 2008
Australia’s emissions trading scheme is likely to recognise carbon stored in wood products – something New Zealand’s own forest industry would like to see on the table for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
New report: more carbon credits needed to protect native forests
1 Jul 2008
Landowners will clear regenerating forests for exotic forests or farming if the carbon-storage capacity of indigenous trees is not fairly recognised under the emissions trading scheme.
Report underestimates benefits of increased forestry planting, say forest owners
27 Jun 2008
A recent report from the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development grossly underestimates the potential benefits generated by the forestry sector under the proposed emissions trading scheme, says the forest owners’ association (NZFOA), because the report does not factor in the ongoing and increasing ability of newly-planted forests to sequester carbon.
Tree planting will have little effect on carbon - report
20 Jun 2008
A Ministry for the Environment report predicts forestry’s new planting levels will have a minimal impact on New Zealand’s overall carbon account situation for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol - regardless of whether afforestation occurs at a rate of zero, 5000 or 20,000ha per annum.
Government forestry policies costly mistake, say owners
17 Jun 2008
New Zealand’s national carbon accounts could be up to $1.5 billion worse off in the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol than if the Government’s policies had encouraged levels of new plantings consistent with those of the 1990s, according to financial modelling by Peter Clark, climate change spokesman for the New Zealand Forest Owners’ Association and chief executive of PF Olsen Ltd.
Forestry owners: Ministers claim of liabilities warning not true
13 Jun 2008
Claims by forestry minister Jim Anderton on Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report yesterday that land owners were warned five years ago of potential deforestation liabilities are not correct, the New Zealand Forest Owners Association said yesterday.
Major deforestation reported, but MAF survey shows ETS will lift replanting rates
11 Jun 2008
National yesterday decried the worst ever loss of 13,600 hectares of forest last year as a disaster for the environment. However it will vote against the ETS, which a MAF study reveals will boost replating rates by 5 to 15%.
Major policy clamp down on climate-warming illegal wood imports?
28 May 2008
The Cabinet has agreed in principle to mandatory labelling of all kwila products sold in New Zealand.
Kiwis embrace the chop-down-trees environmental message
27 May 2008
New Zealanders think using more wood is good for the environment.
MAF: wood supply to jump about 3 million cu m a year
27 May 2008
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has released new wood availability forecasts for the Central North Island that indicate a steady increase in supply for the region over the next 12 years.
Aggressive EU move to use Fiji as carbon sink, vital for NZ forest interests
22 May 2008
Fiji is facing a new future as a repository of carbon credits.
Deforestation Risk Overstated
21 May 2008
Fears that a temporary delay in the passage of the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill could lead to significant deforestation are unfounded, according to the Flexible Land Use Alliance.
Forest owners tell ETS body: Our burden is unfair
13 May 2008
The forestry industry’s displeasure at being the only sector left in the early stages of the emissions trading scheme reached Parliament yesterday.
Forest giant could be carbon-saving crop of the future
5 May 2008
Foresters wanting to cash in on the carbon trading regime are being told to think Californian coastal redwoods.
Tree-mendous ... Charles to check on our forests
2 May 2008
Internal Affairs officials are in the early planning stages for a visit by the Prince of Wales and they have been advised by their UK counterparts it will be all business, rainforest business.
Deer hunters stalk carbon sink scheme
24 Apr 2008
The Deerstalkers' Association wants to sink a government proposal to wipe out deer from blocks of the Aorangi Forest on the Wairarapa coast.
Small-forest scheme open for business
23 Apr 2008
Applications are now open for the Government's new Afforestation Grant Scheme aimed at getting more trees planted on farms as part of New Zealand's effort to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Wellington City decides on carbon credit revenue plan from town belts, forests
21 Apr 2008
Wellington City is looking to earn large annual revenues from emission credits by turning its town belts and forests into carbon sinks.
New indicators predict productivity of forestry sites
9 Apr 2008
Forestry scientists at Scion have for the first time developed the key soil and environmental indicators that show the productive capacity of sites in every part of New Zealand where someone may want to plant a forest.
GreenAir Fund pitches for major new forestry emision unit business
8 Apr 2008
With new forestry in New Zealand eligible for NZUs (New Zealand carbon offset units) from January 1 this year, the Sydney-based GreenAir Fund is bidding for new business here by offering up-front funding to complete the qualification design and certification of a potential carbon credit project.
Professor reviewing forestry offset scheme proposal
3 Apr 2008
The Flexible Land Use Alliance has appointed Professor Lewis Evans to review a draft report by the University of Waikato and Covec on proposed changes to the forestry components of the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill, including the introduction of a Forestry Offset Scheme.
Debanking bill 'financially dangerous'
Tue 15 Jul 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A private member’s bill aiming to stop financial institutions from considering ESG factors has been slammed by leading investment groups, legal experts, and climate finance advocates as misguided, financially dangerous, and legislative overreach.
Fast, sustained phase-out of fossil fuels: best-performing countries in coal and transport sectors
Thu 10 Jul 2025
By Robert McLachlan | It’s true that climate change is getting worse – it will continue to get worse until emissions fall to near zero. But is action on phasing out fossil fuels really stalling?
Clear-sighted view to trade-offs crucial to reimagining our relationship with the land
7 Jul 2025
By Nick Swallow | COMMENT: New Zealand could see a 70% drop in the value of dairy land if we pursue our emissions targets for agriculture, according to a new report.
Mangroves' overlooked climate role
30 Jun 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand’s mangrove forests are pulling tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year, yet their climate benefits remain unrecognised in national emissions reporting.
How flying can be a climate solution
16 Jun 2025
By Paul Callister and Robert McLachlan - Planetary Ecology | How can aviation contribute to tackling climate change when no practicable technology-based solutions are on the horizon?
NZ Post drops science-based climate target
8 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | NZ Post has dropped its science-based emissions reduction target of 42% by 2030 with no plans to replace it.
