Native flora flourishes on farms
Quarter of New Zealand’s native vegetation is found on sheep and beef farms, the largest amount outside of conservation land, a new report shows.
The University of Canterbury report estimated 2.8 million hectares of native vegetation, including forest, grassland, shrubland and wetland, was on sheep and beef farms.
Half of that was forest, accounting for 17 per cent of New Zealand’s total remaining native forest.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B
+LNZ) chief executive Sam McIvor said the findings were a great acknowledgement for farmers and the work they were doing as stewards of the land.
‘‘I hear sheep and beef farmers talking every day about what they’re doing on-farm to support biodiversity and it’s great we now have evidence to back up their passionate voices,’’ he said.
The report, commissioned by
B+LNZ, was headed by Professor David Norton from the University of Canterbury’s Forestry.
Satellite imagery was used to assess the amount of native vegetation, focusing on native forest, on sheep and beef farms in New Zealand.
‘‘The 2.8m hectares of native vegetation on sheep and beef farms are critical for biodiversity conservation on farms and for landscape-level biodiversity outcomes,’’ Norton said.
‘‘This finding is particularly important in places where there School of is little native cover remaining, like those in lower altitudes, on more gentle slopes, and in drier regions.’’
Forest and Bird chief conservation adviser Kevin Hackwell said it was promising B+LNZ had commissioned the research as part of its environment strategy.
‘‘I particularly like where B +LNZ is going in recognising the value of native vegetation on farms but there are still a lot of farmers who don’t see that value,’’ he said.
‘‘We are fighting dairy conversions in the Mackenzie Country, for example, where land is going from sheep and beef to dairy and some of those farmers are destroying the land.
‘‘We would like to see B+LNZ support a strong National Policy Statement on indigenous biodiversity when it comes out.’’
About 100,000ha of New Zealand’s sheep and beef farms is protected by QEII National Trust covenants and while that was positive, it also raised the issue of what was not protected, Hackwell said.
‘‘Any landowner can put land into a QEII covenant and in many cases they can get rates relief and assistance with things like fencing for doing so,’’ he said.
McIvor said the report was also relevant to the Government’s proposed zero carbon legislation.
While further research was needed, the 1.4m ha of native forest would be isolating and storing carbon, most of which was unlikely to be counted in the current Emissions Trading Scheme.
Further research was being undertaken to measure the potential of that native forest.