Māori landowners are flying to the United Nations in a last-ditch effort to stop changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The scheme forces polluters to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits.
Planting trees creates those credits, which can then be traded. It’s led to the creation of an industry of carbon farming which many Māori landowners rely on.
They say the Government's proposals could jeopardise the local carbon credit industry, which is worth an estimated $16 billion to the Māori economy.
Among those flying out to the UN is Penetaui Klescovic (Te Aupōuri), who will be representing Te Aupōuri landowners in the Far North.
The iwi is heavily invested in the planting of pine trees to earn money from carbon credits.
"The majority of that land is what you call marginal land and if we can't plant trees on there and realise that economic light then essentially, we're going to be condemned to poverty because the Government is making those changes to the ETS," he said.
Māori landowner Chris Karamea Insley (Te Taumata) added, "It’s not like we can go and put a dairy farm on the side of steep, eroding country. We can't".
"We know we can grow forests and so it is one of the few – if not only – options for our people."
But the Environmental Defence Society's Gary Taylor said it's "cheaper for emitters to buy off-sets in pine forests than it is to actually reduce their emissions".
And if too many forests are planted, the price of carbon credits could get even cheaper.
Climate Minister James Shaw said there's a risk that polluters "could just buy cheap forestry offsets rather than reduce their pollution".
"The other thing, of course, is it would mean anyone who is invested in forestry so far would see the value of those investments collapse."
Four options are now on the table to reduce a reliance on forestry and encourage polluters to cut emissions.
However, some Māori landowners want things to remain as they are.
"We estimate its worth $16 billion to Māori – that’s what's at stake that we lose," Karamea Insley said.
But Taylor argued that the current scheme "is not a sustainable pathway longer term".
“Eventually, you're gonna run out of space to plant trees."
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