A voluntary nature credit scheme to incentivise the restoration of biodiversity on private land is a welcome step forward by the Government.
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has confirmed the Government will support the expansion of a voluntary nature credits market and fund nine pilot projects.
“We urgently need to address nature loss in New Zealand so we’re supportive of any moves by the Government to create new pathways for private investment in biodiversity recovery,” says WWF-New Zealand’s CEO Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb.
Many New Zealanders might not be aware that a significant amount of New Zealand’s endemic biodiversity is found on private land.
“New Zealand has the highest species extinction rate in the world and thousands of our native species are currently threatened or at risk of extinction. Many of the most at-risk species and habitats are outside of conservation land - and current investment is falling well short of what’s needed to address this crisis.
”The introduction of nature credits could create new incentives for landowners to carry out biodiversity protection and restoration activities," she says.
“For example, a farmer might want to fence off a remnant patch of native bush or undertake predator control to restore a wetland. This kind of credit scheme could make a meaningful difference by helping to fund those efforts.
“Many private landowners, including farmers, are already doing wonderful work to complete large biodiversity restoration projects on their land - out of great care for the land and nature. This scheme could help support and scale up those efforts.”
She says a good example is the QEII National Trust, which works in partnership with landowners to protect the most treasured areas on their land with covenants.
“The Trust’s covenant programme is heavily oversubscribed, so an incentive scheme like this could help ease the workload.”
Kingdon-Bebb says the nature credit scheme could go a long way to potentially driving biodiversity recovery as long as there are strong systems in place to ensure nature credits are credible and verifiable.
"We’ll be keeping a close watch on the nine pilot projects to see that they deliver for nature.
“When we talk about high-integrity nature credits, we mean credits that accurately reflect real, measurable biodiversity gains. There must be clear, science-based criteria underpinning the issuing of credits, and robust processes for monitoring and verification.”
Kingdon-Bebb also welcomed Minister Hoggard’s efforts to engage with environmental groups on the system.
“I have to credit Minister Hoggard for being the first minister in this Coalition Government to reach out to WWF-New Zealand proactively to discuss our work. We may not agree on many things but it’s nice to see someone making the effort to find some common ground. And indeed, we can both agree on the potential merits of nature credits.”