Forestry

The Government's proposed forestry rules for emissions trading could see native regenerating forests and tussock-lands destroyed under a blanket of pine forest, Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

The Green Party is calling on the Government to admit to being a major on-the-ground player in the worst deforestation in New Zealand's modern history.

The anticipated closure of the Carter Holt Harvey timber mill in Kopu near Thames is a tragedy that might have been avoided with industry leadership and planning, Green Party Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

The Flexible Land Use Alliance, which has announced it has a parliamentary majority for its forestry offset scheme, needs to realise that the Green Party's support is conditional.

The Greens are calling for the Government to stop downplaying the extent of breaches of resource consents in the dairy industry and for the Ministry for the Environment to release the Clean Streams data that they have apparently misinterpreted.

Today the Greens released a video shot in the northern Wairarapa on Wednesday. It shows that cows are routinely not excluded from large and small rivers and streams and it shows cows defecating into one of major rivers in the region.

The drying out of part of the Waipawa River in the Hawke's Bay is a cause for alarm about the state of our rivers and lakes says the Green Party. And the Government needs to act to introduce water quality standards.