Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) says while it’s encouraging to finally see some restrictions on wholesale conversions of farmland to exotic forestry, the legislation still doesn’t go far enough to slow the rate of productive sheep and beef land being lost.
The Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme – Forestry Conversion) Amendment Bill passed its third reading in Parliament today.
Chair Kate Acland says B+LNZ called for changes to the legislation during the Environment Committee process.
“We’re pleased to see the legislation contains some changes following consultation, including tightened criteria for temporary exemptions on land converted after 4 December 2024 entering the ETS, and bringing forward a review of the annual hectare limit to 2028.
“It’s also encouraging that the Government has committed to addressing the significant increase in pests that we’ve seen in the last couple of years as a result of the increase in forestry and improving fire management. These are areas of major concern for our farmers.
“However, what hasn’t changed is the fundamental issue that the legislation won’t go far enough in slowing down whole farm sales for conversion.
“We’re really disappointed our calls to extend the moratorium on whole farm conversions to all land classes, not just classes 1-5, have not been listened to.
“Eighty-nine percent of whole farm conversions to date have occurred on land classes 6-8. Land class 6, in particular, is highly productive and vital to our sector.
“It is good to see some concrete limits in place, but we remain concerned that this is just tinkering around the edges rather than truly addressing this devasting issue for our sector.
“B+LNZ has been calling for action since 2019 and we’ve lost at least 300,000 hectares of whole sheep and beef farms to forestry interests since 2017. Our modelling shows that even with the new restrictions we could see a further 650,000 hectares lost by 2050 – and a total of one million hectares would equate to an 18 percent drop in stock units.
“We can’t double exports if we’ve planted our breeding land in trees. New Zealand’s ETS settings are artificially distorting the market and incentivising this wholesale conversion – we are the only country in the world, apart from Kazakhstan, to allow 100 percent offsetting in its carbon pricing mechanism.”
Acland says B+LNZ will continue to closely track whole-farm sales into forestry, something it has been doing regularly since 2021.
“If our concerns about these limits are borne out, we’ll push for further restrictions and will engage with political parties as they shape their policy positions ahead of next year’s General Election.”
She also stresses that B+LNZ is not anti-forestry. “Production forestry within farms, where it makes sense, is an important part of our export offering. But the surge in whole-farm conversions for carbon-only forestry is not being driven by timber demand – it’s the result of a carbon market skewed by poorly designed policy.
“Put simply, this has to stop.”
ENDS
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