MPI cranks up ‘One Billion Trees’ programme through commercial afforestation
Crown Forestry has announced that is looking for land to plant as part of the Government’s One Billion Trees programme.
Crown Forestry, a business unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries, says it is offering to lease 200ha blocks on non-forestry land or enter into a forestry joint venture for 30-year term in order to plant vast swathes of Pinus radiutus. The Crown says it would pay for all establishment and management costs over the lifetime of the crop and pay a negotiated rent to the landowner. Rents would reflect the quality of the land, proximity to ports or wood processing plants and the costs Crown Forestry expect to pay over the lifetime of the crop. The landowner would retain all rights to any carbon credits.
MPI is reaching out to landowners considering commercial radiata pine planting and who have blocks of land that:
- are a minimum size of 200 plantable hectares
- have not been plantation forest before
- have reasonable fertility
- have easy access within the block and to district roads and state highways
- have terrain suitable for current forest harvesting systems
- are identified as suitable for production forestry in the relevant district council and regional council land use and water plans
It notes that if there are weeds, these can be controlled by aerial spraying.
Any areas of regenerating native forest within the block would be left as they are as unplanted enclaves within the forest, it says.