Federated Farmers is backing the government’s announcement enabling a voluntary biodiversity credits market in New Zealand.

The system creates an incentive for farmers to protect and restore biodiversity on their land, says Colin Hurst, Federated Farmers Vice President and freshwater spokesperson. Hurst says the approach is preferable to regulatory tools such as Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) and outstanding natural landscapes designations.

“It’s about an incentive — a carrot — for some of our core biodiversity. We really want to encourage more of it.”

Federated Farmers favours working with farmers by agreement to achieve conservation outcomes, he says.

“We’ve all heard the thing about SNAs and outstanding natural landscapes.

“That’s the stick approach.

“Sure, these places are special, but we’d rather work with farmers and try and get things done by agreement.”

Hurst says Federated Farmers is talking to QEII Trust about the announcement. QEII covenants allow farmers to voluntarily register areas of biodiversity on their title, with the trust providing support for fencing, monitoring and ongoing management.

The announcement acts as an enabler for other schemes rather than a standalone system, Hurst says.

“We all heard the stuff about pine trees and losing all that good country to pine trees.

“We all sort of like that type of stuff a lot better.”

Domestic processor groups could use the system to work with farmers directly.

“There is the opportunity to have a domestic scheme as well — this could be where we have our processor groups, the likes of the meat companies or milk companies, that might want to take advantage of this type of thing or work with farmers together on it.”

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