Submission on the National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation

Te Waihanga has submitted on the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry for Primary Industries discussion paper National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation.

Our submission is that, in specifying the location of afforested areas and ancillary activities regulated under the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry) Regulations 2017 (NES-PF), a set back from existing or planned infrastructure should also be included as a condition or consideration. 

This issue is not adequately addressed in the current NES-PF and it is not raised in the Discussion Paper. In our view, setbacks from infrastructure should be addressed in any amendments to the NES-PF as they raise difficulties for infrastructure now, and will do so even more in the future. If exotic carbon forests and transitional forests are regulated through the NES-PF2, increasing the total area of afforested land, this could exacerbate impacts on infrastructure.