Net deforestation in 2007 amounted to 19,000ha, compared to the Government’s 2006 forecast of 13,000ha, Forestry Minister Jim Anderton said in a statement yesterday. From January 1 this year the owners of the country’s 1.2m hectares of exotic forest planted before 1990 became unable to change their land’s use unless they met the full cost of the resultant carbon emissions, guesstimated to be $20,000/ha.