Members of the Banks Peninsula Native Forest Climate Change group met with the Minister for Climate Change Hon James Shaw and Green Party MP Eugenie Sage to discuss how the natural regeneration of native forest can be better supported through the Emissions Trading Scheme and other levers of government, such as grants. See our presentation here.
The BPNFCC group supports the report from He Pou a Rangi, the Climate Change Commission – in particular its Recommendation 25 – that there needs to be a comprehensive national programme to incentivise the reversion (aka natural regeneration) of native forests to maintain net zero long-lived greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2050. This work needs to start now if the forests are to be sequestering substantially by 2050.
We are extremely concerned that at present the government is incentivising the sequestration of carbon through exotic plantations, and that it is extremely difficult to register naturally regenerating native forest into the Emissions Trading Scheme, and that the former 1 Billion Trees natural regeneration grants have ceased.
The group is loose affiliation of representatives from organisations with a shared interest in the restoration of native biodiversity on Banks Peninsula and is convened by the Rod Donald Trust, meeting and making submissions since 2019. Our aim is to facilitate income to support landowners who are protecting areas of regenerating native forest on their land through carbon credits.
