Listen Now: 
Download AudioMāori land and forest owners are lining up for legal action if the Government goes ahead with a plan to take exotic forests out of the permanent category of the emissions trading scheme.
Maori Forestry Association chair Te Kapunga Dewes says his rōpū has offered to co-design a system and is seeking a meeting with the relevant ministers.
He says on the crown’s own figures there is a $7 billion in lost opportunity in Māori landowners are blocked from what is the best option to sustainably develop the marginal and remote land block.
There’s also a cost to the country, as it will have to go offshore to buy the carbon units which could have been generated by Māori on their own whenua.
“There are legal actions which are more than likely to occur from a High Court injunction for lack of consultation through to Waitangi Tribunal claims based on lack of consultation and engagement with Māori and removing our customary rights to participate in the forestry economy, and sal some concerns about intellectual rights, particularly around natives,” Mr Dewes says.
The final option could be a claim to the United Nations over the continued suppression of indigenous peoples.
RELATED NEWS
