Healthy forests

The Green Party will protect and restore our native forests for the benefit of local communities, our native plants and animals, and our climate.

Our remaining native forests are vital for keeping the climate healthy, and are home to an extraordinary array of plants and animals.

For decades, governments have prioritised exotic forests as a source of profit, rather than restoring our indigenous biodiversity.

The Green Party knows the ngahere holds mauri, is home to our manu and wildlife and is essential for biodiversity, and resilience to extreme weather events.

The time is now to follow the guidance of tangata whenua to protect and restore our native forests, Te Wao nui a Tāne in a way that is good for nature, good for the climate, and good for our rural communities.

We will make sure our carbon pricing supports real emissions reduction, and prioritises native species for carbon sequestration instead of exotics.

More native trees mean more native birds, bees, insects and invertebrates, cleaner waterways, and more resilient communities.

Our Plan

  • Protect indigenous forests by supporting and funding programmes to establish new forests, actively managing those on public land to increase carbon sequestration and biodiversity, and resourcing iwi and hapū to restore forests on Māori land.
  • Recognise and protect te Tiriti o Waitangi rights in relation to indigenous forests on public land, including kaitiakitanga and customary use rights for indigenous plants, and intellectual property rights.
  • Amend the Emissions Trading Scheme to prevent an overreliance on forestry offsets, and to incentivise indigenous biodiversity for carbon sequestration.
  • Ensure there are strong controls on plantation forestry, including planting, management, and harvesting; and increase resourcing for monitoring, compliance, and enforcement of these controls.
  • Require forestry operators to provide compensation when forestry slash from their logging operations causes damage.
  • Support the local wood-processing sector to scale up manufacture of products that add value to plantation grown timber, and can be used in construction, such as cross-laminated timber.
  • Establish an effective regime to ban the import of products (such as soya beans, palm products, and cocoa) from illegally logged forests overseas.

You can find our full manifesto here