Please note that submissions have now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted.

Our communities are under threat from the afforestation of farmland caused by government incentives allowing unmitigated ‘offsetting’ of emissions.

The Ministry for Primary Industries is asking for submissions on their discussion document, Managing exotic afforestation incentives, which proposes to rebalance how planting of exotic trees is treated by the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Groundswell NZ has made a full submission, which you can read here.

The MPI discussion document is available here.

You can submit on the discussion document by emailing mpi.forestry@mpi.govt.nz, or at the MPI website at https://www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/managing-exotic-afforestation-incentives.

This is your opportunity to tell the Government how exotic planting is impacting your farm and your community. Submissions close at 5pm on Friday, 22 April.

You may want to include these key points, covered in the Groundswell NZ submission:

• Our communities are being destroyed at a speed that is only gathering pace
• Current policy settings, allowing unmitigated ‘offsetting’ of emissions, are achieving the complete opposite of the original intent of the ETS
• Afforestation of exotics should be based on commercial expectations and not incentivised by means of carbon credits
• We must always view impacts through a global lens – it makes no sense to have isolated domestic policy settings that are detrimental to global climate ambitions.
• Exotics should not be allowed in the permanent forest regime

You may also want to talk about your experience with wilding trees and their impact on our environment, the financial cost of protecting our valued landscape from wildings, and what happens when your neighbouring farm is planted.

It looks like the Government may be changing course on exotic afforestation. This is the time to keep the pressure on.

Thank you for your support.