Jamie Mackay: The Country host on foresters voicing regret over carbon farming

Some foresters are starting to regret rushing into carbon credit farming, according to new reports from the Forestry Owners Association.

Chief executive Dr. Elizabeth Heeg says more foresters are facing backlash and concerns have been raised.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Rural Report on hither do for see Alan Drive,
Jamie McKay, Host of the Countries with us l O,
Jamie get Neil. I'll try, Heather, really, I won't. I
won't smoke you, Heather, try not to smoke you. You need
Do you need Stewart to tell you what a woman is? No? No,
I don't. I don't. We're having all sorts of issues

(00:22):
with politicians in this country telling a woman. He was
on my Yeah, somebody tells me and said when he
was on your show and actually didn't sound that cross
at stew at all. Well, he was on my show
today and he didn't sound that cross Stewart at all.
But that of view and I looked back on it
was recorded at about quarter to eleven this morning. I'm

(00:42):
not sure whether he knew at that stage that Stuart
Nash had resigned or was going to resign. Yeah, he said, oh,
well he made a mistake. We all make mistakes. He
immediately apologized, business as usual. I suspect underneath it all
he's human because you know him as well as I do,
and the man himself has impeccable manners and etiquette. He

(01:04):
would never have mutted that himself. No, I think you're
quite right. Hey, listen, is it the case that some
forest is starting to regret getting into the carbon farbing Well,
a really interesting comment came out from a panel discussion
from doctor Elizabeth Heigu, who's the chief executive of the
Forest Owners Association, and she's saying that it's turned into

(01:27):
a bit of a poison chalice for some growers. They're
starting to regret rushing into carbon credit farming. She's saying
that it's true that some people and this is what
we've been or I've been arguing all along, we're treating
it like a bit like a gold rush. She was
fed up with dealing with a lot of negativity around
forestry because most of it is not negative at all.

(01:50):
But she said every forest needed to be actively managed,
but there were a small number of people failing to
uphold their legal and moral land management obligations. And then
she went on to save anyone says they can plant
and walk away, This is spray and walk away with
everything climate change is throwing at us. They are a
liability and they need to be held to account. So

(02:11):
strong words from a doctor Elizabeth on that one Federated
Farmers when it comes to the carbon farming. They made
a good point. They said farmers could probably accept re
a forestation because the rates apparently in numbers of hectares
are no higher than they were twenty five years ago.
It's just where we're planting them right at the moment.
They're saying they could probably accept this rea forestation if

(02:35):
it were driven entirely by the harvest market i e.
Log prices, etc. However, seventy percent of the revenue for
harvested trees was coming from carbon, and they're saying they
wouldn't be planted at the scale they are at the
moment if it wasn't for the carbon price. The other
issuer is with these carbon farms, farms adjoining pine forests

(02:57):
were losing the likes of lambs, newborn lambs to feral
pigs coming out of the trees. Pest control has fallen
away in these forests. It's leading farmers to have to
move away from sheep to the likes of beef. So
it is a real issue. And then there's the fact
that carbon farming has made sheep and beef farms more valuable,
and that has a negative effect on the return of

(03:19):
assets for sheep and beef farms. So yeah, it's an
interesting argument, and I think that the forestry industry per se,
is getting a bit sick of being tarred with the
carbon farming brush. Jamie, it's good to talk to you.
I really appreciate your taking on that. There's Jamie Mackay,
host of the Country. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

(03:41):
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.