Editorial: New Treeland?
OPINION: Forestry is not all bad and planting pine trees on land that is prone to erosion or in soils which cannot support livestock farming makes sense.
The new report, Alt-F Reset: Examining the drivers of forestry in New Zealand, says that Radiata pine is really the only economical tree for carbon farming.
However, it could leave the Crown with future carbon liabilities if they’re damaged by pests, disease, fire or extreme weather events.
Even climate scientists are anti-Pine, one saying “the PCE, Simon Upton, is uniquely qualified to provide impartial strategic guidance on New Zealand Forests. We should be deeply grateful for this as climate virtue signaling and perverse carbon incentives threaten to radically change our classic rural landscapes in a widespread and visually jarring fashion”
The key takeaway from the PCE’s advice is ‘no to carbon forestry’.
