Permanent Forestry Sink Initiative (NZ)

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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0608/S00565.htm

The Labour-Progressive coalition Government has confirmed today that it will proceed with the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative (PFSI), a major initiative that provides a new economic use for some of New Zealand’s most difficult and erosion-prone land.

Minister of Agriculture, Jim Anderton and Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues, David Parker said that the PFSI allows landowners to get the economic value of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequestering (storing) it in the form of new forests. They said that under the Kyoto Protocol, this process generates so-called forest sink credits, which can be sold on the international market.

"New Zealand land managers now have access to a radically new business opportunity from which to generate income-carbon farming. Because carbon farming does not necessarily require roads to be built or trees to be harvested, it is particularly well suited to isolated and highly erosion-prone land," Jim Anderton said.

"The PFSI provides an important new opportunity for land managers to protect vulnerable land, while still generating an economic return from it. Consequently, we expect regional authorities will be particularly interested in how the PFSI can help them respond to the risks of adverse weather events," Jim Anderton said.

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