Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Plan of Action
Ministerial foreword
Much of the New Zealand economy is based on agriculture and forestry. Nearly half New Zealand’s land area is used for primary production; with 39 percent of our total land area in pasture, 1.6 percent in horticulture and cropping, and 6.6 percent in planted production forest. These sectors are vulnerable to changes in the world’s climate – environmentally and economically.
Forty nine percent of New Zealand’s total greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, the result of methane from ruminant livestock and nitrous oxide from animal excrement and fertiliser. At the same time, our forest cover represents our largest potential carbon sink – a role that has been under threat, with new plantings at a historical low and a significant area of our harvested forests being converted to other uses.
People in the land-based sectors, Māori, and central and local government need to work together to manage New Zealand's response to climate change. We need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our land-based sectors, and we need to prepare for the climate change that is now inevitable. We need to do so in a way that ensures that these sectors remain innovative and internationally competitive, and can take advantage of the opportunities that an international focus on climate change provides.
In early 2007 the Government consulted the land-based sectors on its intention to develop and implement climate change policies through a single sustainable land management and climate change Plan of Action, to be created and implemented jointly with the sectors. This partnership approach was strongly endorsed by stakeholders, particularly sector and industry leaders.
Since then, the Government has agreed in principle to introduce a New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that will cover all greenhouse gases and all sectors of the economy by 2013. Different sectors will join the scheme over five years, allowing for a gradual adjustment to emission pricing.
The Government will engage with the forestry, agriculture, horticulture and arable farming sectors, Māori and local government to develop joint work programmes under the Plan of Action to achieve a combined sector-government response to climate change. This will be accompanied by significant government investment in key areas.
With respect to the ETS and the land management sectors, the Government has agreed in principle that the forestry sector will come under the scheme as of 1 January 2008. This recognises both the readiness of the sector to enter the scheme and the significance of deforestation as a major contributor to the growth in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The Government has also agreed in principle that agriculture, arable farming and horticulture will enter the scheme by 1 January 2013, allowing these sectors five years in which to prepare to meet the particular challenges they face compared to other sectors.
To assist this, the Government is investing more than $175 million in a range of programmes to help the sectors adapt to, mitigate and exploit the business opportunities of climate change.
Climate change is probably the greatest environmental threat facing humanity. No part of New Zealand society will be immune, but our land-based sectors are particularly affected. We look forward to establishing effective and durable partnerships with all those groups with an interest in meeting the climate change challenge.
 Jim Anderton |
 David Parker |
Contact for Enquiries
Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change
MAF
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 CLIMATE (254 628)
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