Māori question government climate intentions

THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING ENORMOUS damage to the value of whenua Māori and the future of Māori around Aotearoa through their current proposal to remove exotics from the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme, says leading independent organisation for Māori business, Te Taumata.

“Our Māori forestry leaders have been highlighting a potentially transformative opportunity to see massive growth in the Māori economy – with benefits flowing through every Iwi, hapū and whanau – by using what is otherwise ‘low productivity land’ to establish fast-growing exotic trees for the permanent category of the ETS,” says Te Taumata Chair Chris Karamea Insley.

“The Government seems unable to get past the coloniser mindset of telling our whanau how to use our lands and educating us on ‘doing our bit’ through the narrow constraints of the western view of land use,” says Mr Insley. “In doing so, they are denying Māori the right to use our land as we see fit, in what amounts to one of the largest confiscations of the value of whenua Māori in recent memory.”

Māori don’t need climate education, they need the Government to stop preventing them from taking climate action, he adds.

“The Government’s latest announcements are frankly insulting at a time when the Government is proposing to legislate away Māori landowner rights, removing the single largest opportunity for Māori to engage in climate action.

“Māori landowners have a $7 billion opportunity to participate in the carbon economy. To make that possible, all the Government needs to do is… nothing.

“If our land is not tied up in red tape, we can ‘do our bit’ for climate change – as the Minister puts it – and for Aotearoa as well. And we can do it without millions in cost to the taxpayer.”

Minister Shaw recognises that “transition should be led by Māori and that will require building Crown–Māori relationships and capability to work together as equal partners”.

“At present we have seen very little evidence of a commitment to this approach, as the Government continues to try to dictate their climate agenda to us, while hamstringing the single most effective opportunity for Māoriled

climate action,” adds Mr Insley.

“It is simply unacceptable to produce a raft of policies, followed by narrow focused and time-constrained processes that can scarcely be called consultation, and call it a commitment to partnership.

“We expect the Government to start from the beginning with us to show a true commitment as equal partners under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

While the Government is urging Maori to move from pine and other exotic species to native forest, many Maori have already planted pine in response to the Government’s one billion trees target and are collecting more carbon credits from the fast-growing forests than they could with natives – and they don’t want to switch.

Last month, Māori leaders and foresters met with Government Ministers about proposed changes to exclude the future permanent plantings of exotic forests like radiata pine from the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Māori say they are prepared to go to the High Court and the Waitangi Tribunal and various iwi are concerned that the change will breach their Treaty settlements.