The Conservative Party New Zealand wants the practice of
carbon farming stopped because of deep damage to
agricultural production, rural communities and the
environment.
Helen Houghton Conservative Party leader
said the practice of carbon farming under the flawed
Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was a failure economically
and environmentally.
“The government tried to sell
3.9 million carbon credits last month. Nobody bought any,”
she said.
It was the seventh consecutive quarterly
auction where this had happened. While struggling to sell
units domestically, Treasury estimates project a major
national emissions shortfall, leaving the government facing
multibillion-dollar costs if it has to purchase offshore
carbon credits to meet international Paris Agreement
targets.
“The economic failure also is seen in the
depopulation of rural New Zealand and the decline in rural
communities as employment is virtually zero in unmanaged
forest blocks compared to a farming economy,” said Helen
Houghton. “In addition there’s the loss of productive
sheep and beef farms as speculators haphazardly plant pines.
You can’t eat pine needles and cones.”
But the
Conservative Party’s concern also centred on the
despoiling of the environment.
“Pine trees have a
insatiable thirst for water,’ said Helen
Houghton.
“Pine trees consume significantly more
water than native vegetation, shrinking local stream flows
or causing small streams to dry up. Parent rivers decrease
in flow.”
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Pine trees consume large amounts of
water—often absorbing roughly 38 litres of water per 2.5
cms (one inch) of trunk diameter daily. A mature pine can
absorb up to 560 litres a day with an abundant water
supply.
In addition, pines monocultures lack
biological diversity and support a fraction of the wildlife
found in native forests or farmland. Pine trees like
contorta and pines radiata produce seeds that are windblown
and currently are an increasing invasive threat to the high
country as well as areas like the Marlborough
Sounds.
Pine monocultures are a potential wildfire
hazard. Pine needles increase soil acidity over time
(lowering pH), which alters soil chemistry and harms native
organisms. Rain washes acidic compounds from the soil into
nearby rivers and streams, threatening aquatic life, native
fish and trout when the pH drops below 5.5.
Bare pine
forest floors absorb water less effectively than spongy
native bush. This leads to flashier, heavier runoff during
storms.
“Carbon farming is an economic failure and
an environmental disaster,” said Helen Houghton. Helen
Houghton said the current government was stupid to carry on
with carbon farming.
“Even more stupid was the
Labour government previously who relaxed the laws around
foreign ownership resulting in overseas speculators to come
in and profit at the expense of the economy and
environment,” she
said.
