Iwi to benefit as Govt seeks ETS support

Taxpayers face a multimillion-dollar settlement with iwi to clear the way for the Government's climate change legislation.

Climate Change Minister Nick Smith confirmed yesterday there would be a significant cost to the Crown under the Government's proposed deal with the Maori Party to secure support for its emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Smith said he could not put a figure on the cost to taxpayers.

However, he said it would be substantially less than the $130 million claimed by Ngai Tahu for the loss of forest value under the amended scheme.

Smith said he had weighed up the costs of a settlement against the risk of a court case and the damage to the Ngai Tahu relationship.

"In the end, it's a political judgment."

A forest owners group, the Kyoto Forestry Association, places the value to iwi claimants – based on 40,000 hectares of trees – at $25 million a year, or about $2 billion over the life of a forest.

The Government's proposed deal with iwi involves planting trees on about 40,000ha of Department of Conservation (DOC) estate, which would form part of the country's permanent "carbon sink", earning carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol.

The money from the credits would be kept by Maori.

That is is in exchange for Maori, mainly Ngai Tahu, dropping a compensation bid.

Under the ETS, forest owners get credits for trees planted after 1990, but must pay if they cut them down.

Ngai Tahu argues it always planned to fell some forests for dairying, and that the Crown knew this when it sold forests to the tribe under a 1999 Treaty settlement.

Smith said native trees that could be harvested would be planted on Crown land. The commercial gain for iwi would be the carbon credits those trees accrued.

However, he later said it could be either native or plantation timber.

Smith also said the Government was looking at other Maori-Crown forestation partnerships where land and planting costs would be shared, along with any carbon credits. Commercial forestry interests had approached DOC for a similar deal.

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