Doc may become largest carbon trader

The Department of Conservation (Doc) could become the country's largest carbon trader.

Correspondence between the department and the Otago Daily Times and information detailed in briefing papers for the new Minister, Tim Groser, indicate Doc has advanced plans to use the carbon sequestering properties of conservation land to start trading carbon credits.

Doc claims it could offset some of the country's 78 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, a figure which had grown 26% between 1990 and 2006.

The department manages 8.5 million ha, or 32% of New Zealand's land mass, and in briefing papers for Mr Groser, Doc senior management said they were identifying sites where "Government-funded conservation projects on public conservation land initiated since 1990 have also resulted in an increase in carbon stocks."

The briefing papers indicate Doc-managed land could have a significant role to play as a sink for greenhouse gases.

"The carbon stock on public land managed by the department, mostly in native forests or forest-shrublands, is about 2400 million tonnes - about half of the total stock of New Zealand's vegetation and soil."

Given the area of public conservation land, the papers said a small change in total carbon stock would equate to the removal of a significant amount of carbon and help New Zealand meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.

Carbon sequestration, or carbon sink, is the uptake and storage of carbon by plants and soil.

A formula calculates how much carbon is stored for which the owner is given credits which can then be traded internationally with companies seeking to offset their emissions.

Doc said it had started looking for carbon credit markets, private sector partners to establish new native forests on public conservation land while also increasing carbon stocks in existing native forests.

"Areas of conservation land have been made available for forest carbon sinks to offset emissions from central Government agencies [including the department] seeking to become carbon neutral by 2012."

Doc director-general Alastair Morrison last month in part justified the $40 million purchase of the 78,196ha St James Station in North Canterbury for its "significant contribution towards off-setting carbon emissions."

Removing grazing animals and controlling weeds and pests would increase the vegetation biomass "with an associated increase in the carbon stock of the area".

Mr Morrison said if the grasslands of the station sequestered one tonne a ha of carbon dioxide equivalent, that would result in 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide sequestered annually.

"This is more than twice the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Doc, or one-fifth of the emissions of the 34 core public service agencies."

Regenerating forest on the property would provide additional carbon sequestering.

High-country farmers claim Doc has been paying inflated prices for high country land and Federated Farmers high-country section chairman Donald Aubrey said venturing into carbon farming could be one reason.

In the case of St James, it has been claimed that Doc paid four times its productive value.

Mr Aubrey was earlier told Doc would not be involved in carbon farming and he was surprised it now appeared it would be.

"I am surprised given the previous advice I'd been provided with. It certainly signals a change from where the department stood previously."