Carbon Partnership - NZ Forests Projects

Carbon Partnership is developing a unique voluntary carbon project in an effort to protect Maori-owned indigenous forest in Southland. The project tests whether carbon revenues from forest protection can compete commercially with timber harvesting.

It is being funded by Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development), and involves collaboration with the Rowallan-Alton Incorporation (an incorporation of SILNA Maori land owners), the Office of the Maori Trustee, Landcare Research, and Sinclair Knight Merz.

Photo: Sean Weaver (Carbon Partnership) and Ken McAnergney (Rowallan-Alton Incorporation) during a site visit in November 2009 to explore forest management options on the Rowallan-Alton estate.

If successful this will be a first for New Zealand because the domestic carbon market normally only applies to forests established after 1990. This project aims to protect mature indigenous forest through the sale of carbon credits that would be attractive to buyers seeking to offset international air travel emissions, claim carbon neutrality, or corporate social responsibility. If it can work in Southland it can work other parts of the country.

The project has so far involved a detailed scoping exercise (Phase 1), the development of a voluntary carbon market methodology, and then populating this methodology with data from the case study lands (Phase 2). We are now in a position to start looking for buyers.

Phase 1 Report: Carbon Market Opportunities for SILNA Forest Owners. 

Photo: Rowallan-Alton Incorporation land (pasture and forest) with Fiordland National Park in the background.