Carbon farming: seeing the wood for the trees

East Cape hill country farms scoured by erosion after Cyclone Gabrielle. (Image: Lewis Tucker)

Tue, 25 Apr 2023

If we are honest about it, the farmers who more than a century ago cleared the native forest from our steep hill country for farm conversions made a mistake. Based on what we know now, the land was unstable without forest cover. Topsoil runoff and erosion became major problems, and the land became unsafe to farm. The economics of farming the bit out the back did not really stack up.Our steep, marginal hill country is perfectly suited to trees. While we might have made mistakes about clearing certain land in the first place, the good news i...

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