Ollie Belton presented at a Canterbury Beef + Lamb NZ field day last month which focused on integrating carbon forestry within existing farms, and the new One Billion Tree grant schemes for landowners.The event was well attended with over 100 farmers and rural sector advisors.

Media was also present and Stuff have just released an article based on the presentation Ollie jointly gave with Dave Janett from Forest Management NZ. The article is part of Stuff's Quick! Save the Planet series  to combat climate change.
While the article focuses on planting radiata pine over native in terms of economic return we want to stress that radiata pine is not always the most suitable tree for promoting environmental and conversation outcomes and we encourage diversity of species including natives where possible.

You can read the Stuff article here.

On Friday the new One Billion Trees Fund was launched at our clients, Warrick and CeCe James', farm in the Malvern Hills.
 
This new grant scheme is part of the Governments initiative to reach the goal of planting one billion trees by 2028. It reduces some of the barriers that are present in existing afforestation grants and improves incentives for planting trees.

Led by Te Uru Rākau (MPI), the fund has two types of grants, direct landowner grants and partnership projects, with a total combined funding of $238 million. Landowners can receive between $1500 to $6500 per hectare depending on species planted. There is also a new $1000 per hectare grant available for native forest reversion.

Under the previous afforestation grant scheme the Crown retained the carbon credits for the first 10 years. The new 1BT grant scheme allows the landowner to keep all carbon credits, except for radiata pine. For radiata the Crown still retains the first six years of credits.

We can assist landowners with applications to the new Fund which are now open and can be submitted all year round.
 
Contact us to find out more or visit MPI's website here for more information. You can also watch the launch of the 1BT fund here.

To meet the global warming target set by new research from the IPCC, reforestation will have to be done on a massive scale, about the size of the Amazon rainforest.

Read what Shell's Chief Executive Ben van Beurden has to say about it here

Ollie gave a presentation to Bayleys Real Estate in Ashburton to explain the renewed investment opportunities in carbon forestry for farmers.
Read article in the Otago Daily Times here

Z Energy have partnered with Permanent Forests NZ to source $1.5 million worth of PFSI units to offset their fuel delivery operations. Ollie Belton from CFS helped facilitate this transaction.

Read the NZ Herald article here.

CFS Director Ollie Belton is interviewed by Country-Wide Magazine {April 2018, Vol 40 No.4} for their article ‘Getting into the carbon market’. The article is written by Joanna Grigg a client of CFS who owns native forest registered under the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative and the Emissions Trading Scheme.
In the article Ollie discusses the opportunities in the carbon market and the importance of carbon price and government policy stability to get more sign-up to the PFSI and ETS, especially for native forests.
To access the article click here

Jo McIntosh from Aon NZ is a forestry insurance specialist, she writes an article for the New Zealand Tree Grower {Feb 2018} featuring advice from Ollie about carbon forest insurance and possible risks. Read article here

Washington based non-profit, Ecosystems Marketplace, has released it's annual report 'State of Forest Carbon Finance 2017'.  View the press release and report.
​
Lead author Kelly Hamrick presents a webinar 'Oceania Carbon Offsetting Trends' based on this report, Ollie Belton features as an expert reviewer providing on-the-ground insights about what is happening in New Zealand. Watch webinar here
​ 

Ollie Belton has been appointed as one of the sector experts to join the Climate Change Forestry Reference Group.
The purpose of the Group is to explore and test evidence, analysis and policy options to inform and support officials to develop climate change policy that enables forestry to contribute meaningfully to New Zealand’s international climate change targets. Read the Primary Industries Ministers’ press release here 
​
Download the Climate Change Forestry Reference Group Terms of Reference [PDF, 2.5 MB]