July 2007
Six pilot projects to store
carbon on public conservation land are to be tendered to commercial
investors in a climate change initiative announced by New Zealand
Conservation Minister Chris Carter Wednesday. The projects will cover
about 40,000 hectares, or 154 square miles.
"A unique opportunity exists to significantly increase the level of
investment in the conservation of New Zealand's native forests and species
while at the same time offering New Zealand companies a way of offsetting
the carbon emissions of their business," Carter said.
Companies have been approaching the Department of Conservation with
multi-million dollar conservation and carbon storage proposals, the
minister said.
"To capitalize on this opportunity," he said, "the government has agreed
to permit the development of six pilot projects on public conservation
land, which will be offered to commercial investors in a competitive
tender run by the Department of Conservation, DOC." Green Party
Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei welcomed the proposal but said the
projects would need to be closely monitored to ensure the benefits were
not entirely captured by the private sector.
"The Greens welcome any initiative offering genuine climate change and
conservation benefits. On the surface, these pilot projects may have
both," she said.
Greens Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei
"It will be ideal if this proves to be a mechanism for the government to
obtain credits for the public through private investment in public land.
Currently though, we do not know what conservation areas will be involved,
and how the outcomes will be managed," Turei said.
Details of the projects are still being developed, Carter said, but they
are likely to be of two types.
The first will set aside specific areas of conservation land for either
replanting or natural regeneration of forests on land which was not
forested before 1989, which makes these measures compliant with the Kyoto
Protocol.
For storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, companies can earn credits,
or Kyoto Protocol emission units, which are internationally tradeable.
Emission units will be transferred to project owners annually according to
the emissions they reduce in that year. The awarded units are for
reductions that will be delivered during the first commitment period of
the Kyoto Protocol, 2008-2012.
The second type of project, likely to be the largest of the two, will
involve pest control initiatives on conservation land to measure and
assess increases in carbon storage, both through the removal of pests
which may emit methane and through increased growth in shrubs and trees
with the pests gone.
The Department of Conservation considers deer, wild horses, possums, rats,
stoats, and weasels to be animal pests.
For instance, the Australian brush tailed possum was introduced into New
Zealand in 1837 to establish a fur trade. Now the New Zealand possum
population tops 70 million and chomps its way through seven million metric
tons of vegetation a year.
While the animal pest control measures are not Kyoto compliant, said
Carter, they can be traded on the international "grey" or unofficial,
market and they do comply with the ultimate objective of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
"The benefits for conservation from this initiative are potentially very
substantial indeed because they will result in intensive management of
areas of conservation land not currently targeted," Carter said.
"By putting the projects out to competitive tender, the Crown may attract
some high bids," said Turei, "but the track record of public/private
partnerships is that there is an incentive for the tendered price to then
be recouped via jacking up costs and skimping on the quality of delivery."
"There are also questions on whether the public will retain access to the
conservation lands involved," she said. "No opportunity for public input
is envisaged before the conservation areas are selected, and the projects
are put on the rails."
By putting the projects out to tender, all New Zealand companies are put
on a level playing field in the tender process for the carbon storage
opportunities conservation land offers, Carter said.
Turei questioned why the government is allowing the private sector to reap
the carbon credits for these projects instead of taking on the projects
and earning the credits itself.
"One has to ask why the government isn't enabling the Department of
Conservation to set up, manage and onsell the subsequent credits for these
projects itself," she said. "After all, plans are well advanced for DOC to
use conservation land to help other government departments achieve carbon
neutrality. It is hard to see why DOC will not have a similar managerial
role with respect to these projects on conservation land."
"The government intends to evaluate the conservation and carbon storage
value from these projects after two years. At this point, we will decide
whether to permit further carbon offset projects to proceed on
conservation land," Carter said.
"New Zealanders have always understood the social value of protected
landscapes, but climate change is starting to demonstrate just how
important an economic resource our native forests could be in future," he
said.
In a separate initiative, the Ministry for the Environment and the
Department of Conservation are examining the use of public conservation
land to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of government departments to
help them achieve their stated goal of carbon neutrality.
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