June 08, 2018
Carbon best option for erosion-prone land
A Maori land consultant is backing a call for one of the country’s largest forest managers that some East Coast lands need to be retired from production.
PF Olsen chief executive Peter Clark says the weekend flood in Tolaga Bay that dumped large amounts of forestry slash on fields, roads and bridges highlighted the problem of trying to farm trees or animals on erosion-prone land.
Wille Te Aho says there is upwards of 50,000 hectares from Opotiki to Tolaga Bay whose best use is forestry, but the problems come when the trees are harvested.
"The key challenge is whether or not we grow trees to harvest them or whether we grow trees to sell or trade the carbon and I am an advocate of the latter. We need to be growing trees, preferably our indigenous trees, that are there to grow the carbon and then we trade the carbon. At $21 a tonne it is a good good industry to be in," he says.
Mr Te Aho says the East Coast must come to terms with having drier summers and wetter winters.
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