Building climate resilient landscapes requires strong forest-growing markets and rural land prices. Any destabilisation of forestry markets takes us further from this goal. Foresters and rural landowners are currently under threat from a growing movement to reforest hundreds of thousands of hectares of erosion-prone farmland in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
These proposals from narrow interest groups and political interest fail to recognise the impact of changing land use on rural land prices and rural livelihoods, according to Ekos CEO Sean Weaver, a speaker at the upcoming Carbon Forestry Conference in Rotorua this month.
It’s critical for the industry to act. That is the aim of this year’s Carbon Forestry 2023. It is an independent platform bringing together industry leaders, corporate emitters and investors. Over 320 attended Carbon Forestry last year and we are well on track to surpass this.
Sean Weaver, founder & CEO, Ekos
Ekos a social purpose company focusing on climate change solutions, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable land management in New Zealand and internationally. He is a climate financing consulted to the World Bank, African Development Bank, the Pacific Community, Pacific Island governments, central and local government in New Zealand, as well as businesses, universities and community organisations.
Ekos specialises in funding native reforestation using carbon credits, but had to face the harsh reality that carbon financed native reforestation often fails financially. We decided to innovate and plant both native forest areas and exotic forest areas and manage the exotic forests using continuous cover forestry methods.
Note: Programmes and further information can be found on the event website.