A call to plant more trees to offset New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture has won backing from the forestry sector.

Chair of the joint Forest Owners Association and Farm Forestry Associations' Environment Committee Peter Weir says the call from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has highlighted the role trees, both native and in exotic plantations, can play in reducing New Zealand's total gas emissions.

'Dr Jan Wright's information is timely. Tree planting by farmers and small scale forest investors has declined in the past few years and our log processing industry needs the extra tree planting that Dr Wright is calling for,” Peter says.

The PCE Report released last week estimates 26 hectares of new plantation forest every 20 years would offset a year's greenhouse gas emissions from an average 300 cow dairy farm.

'Again, that is one important positive for more trees. The other is that planting trees, especially on rolling hill country, is better than cost neutral for a farmer. Returns on harvesting logs are, over the long term, higher than hill country farming with sheep and cattle.”

The report also calls for New Zealanders to work together to tackle agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Methane and nitrous oxide form about half of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, but there have been many false starts in dealing with them and controversy over their continued omission from the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Dr Jan Wright says there are no 'silver bullets' for dealing with the gases, "but we do need to do what we can to curb these emissions - and we need to start now".

Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy says the report provides a robust and objective examination of how emissions from agriculture are created, as well as options for reducing them.

'Dr Wright's report is consistent with the Government's view that mitigation of greenhouse gases from agriculture is difficult and requires a multi-pronged approach. Dr Wright is correct that there is no silver bullet,” says Paula.

'Agricultural emissions make up 49 per cent of New Zealand's gross emissions. Reducing them while growing our economy is a difficult challenge, but one we must solve.

'For that reason we recently established the Biological Emissions Reference Group to work with the sector to build an objective and agreed understanding of what can be done to reduce agricultural emissions. The Commissioner has provided some useful ideas for the Group to consider further.”

Nathan says the issue is not as simple as whether agriculture is in or out of the ETS – it requires a broader discussion than that.

'For example, planting the right trees, in the right place, at the right time can buy us time to find options to reduce biological emissions from agriculture. The Government is supporting these efforts through the Afforestation Grant Scheme, the Erosion Control Funding Programme and the Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change research programme.

'The Government is also investing $20 million a year in research into developing new mitigation options like a vaccine to reduce emissions from agriculture, which is a very promising long term option.

'We're grateful to Dr Wright for her thoughtful and accessible report. We're pleased she has recognised that our farmers are already amongst the most productive and efficient in the world. Over the past 20 years, they have improved the emissions efficiency of production by approximately one per cent per year by improving feed and nutrition, animal genetics, pasture management and animal health.

'We look forward to the Biological Emissions and Forestry Reference Groups building on the Commissioner's work.”

Peter emphasises that forest owners are not anticipating planting on marginal land classed as highly erodible.

'We anticipate the National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forests being introduced early next year. That will raise a red flag on a large area of North Island hill country farms for plantation forests because the erosion risk after harvest is judged too high, and reversion to native forest may be a viable option for such land.

'The scope for woodlots is clearly on farms, bringing in another income stream. Some parts of farms are more suitable for planting out trees than others. Water quality improves when livestock are replaced by trees in the hill country – the Waikato Healthy River's technical advice calls for another 400,000 ha of forests in that catchment, so there are multiple reasons to see more trees on farms.”