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The government wants to change to a scheme which aims to encourage landowners to lock up carbon emissions in forests.
Associate Primary Industries Minister Jo Goodhew says the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative offered potential benefits not just for climate change mitigation but erosion control, which has implications for water quality.
Since it was introduced in 2006 just 16,000 hectares of land has gone into the scheme, which allows landowners to earn emissions units for stored carbon.
Forest owners including iwi say that’s because National introduced conflicting policies which crashed the price of carbon credits, making it hard to cover management costs.
The proposed changes include doing more to ensure the forests planted are permanent, improving the management of liabilities from natural disasters, and enhancing economic returns.
The first hui to discuss the proposed changes is at Kawakawa this evening, followed by Rotorua and Gisborne next week.
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