Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Eighty percent of the two million hectares of land remaining in Maori ownership on the Coast is considered marginal or unsuitable for modern farming. OB4007-01
Sven Carlsson
RUATORIA resident Manu Caddie says a conservation idea that has made him a finalist in the WWF-New Zealand’s 2017 Conservation Innovation Awards can be applied to the Opotiki district.
His Maori Carbon Farming Co-operative proposal is one of 35 finalists in the awards, the winners of which will be announced at a ceremony in Wellington on November 22.
WWF-New Zealand communications manager Louisa McKerrow said the Conservation Innovation Awards rewarded innovative environmental game-changers.
Designed to help innovators fast-track their ideas to development, the 2017 awards cover three categories: Engaging young people and communities; Predator Free New Zealand 2050; and an Open Category.
A prize package of $25,000 will be awarded to each category winner.
Mr Caddie said his idea was based on the fact that 80 percent of the two million hectares of land remaining in Maori ownership was considered marginal or unsuitable for modern farming and in many places was severely erosion-prone.
“Over the past 30 years large tracts of this land have been converted to plantation forest mono-cropping pinus radiata,” he said.
“An opportunity exists to establish a co-operative model of carbon farming native species that will regenerate indigenous biodiversity, sequester large volumes of carbon and create both employment and income for Maori landowners.”
Mr Caddie said the project was focused on working with a small group of about a dozen East Coast Maori land blocks interested in carbon farming.
“The aim is to develop the relationships and legal structures required to establish a carbon farming co-operative that will amalgamate land available for planting natives into deals with major emitters,” he said.
Mr Caddie said he was happy to be contacted by Opotiki and Te Whanau-a-Apanui peoplewho were interested in the idea.
“Manuka and kanuka planting would work well with this idea,” he said. “They are both good candidates.”