Tāmata Hauhā and Carbon Crop join forces
An innovative partnership to accelerate native and biodiverse carbon forestry across Aotearoa
Forestry developer Tāmata Hauhā and carbon-technology company CarbonCrop are joining forces united by a clear long-term vision to turn native and biodiverse forests into productive economic assets for landholders through carbon forestry.
Tāmata Hauhā works with predominantly Māori landholders, providing funding and expertise to establish forests that achieve the goals of the landholder and generate long-term revenue. CarbonCrop is a technology platform that simplifies access to carbon markets, using AI and automation to deliver robust carbon analysis, monitoring and management.
Tāmata Hauhā CEO, Blair Jamieson says, “We’re excited to be partnering with CarbonCrop who bring the technology and experience to simplify access, admin and compliance with the ETS for us and our landholders. CarbonCrop is particularly powerful when it comes to native and biodiverse carbon forestry which makes them an ideal partner supporting our kaupapa.”
More than 80% of the existing forest area registered by CarbonCrop is native forest. In 2023 they have distributed more than $25m to landholders through ETS incentives.
CarbonCrop Co-founder, Nick Butcher says, “It’s been inspiring to see Tāmata Hauhā’s balance of pragmatism and vision. Their work has an immediate impact, and closes the funding and expertise gap on the large-scale restoration of native and biodiverse forests. We’re very philosophically aligned, which makes it a rewarding partnership.”
Both companies understand the barrier that finance plays in carbon forestry and allow landholders to overcome the complexity and initial financial barriers that traditionally may have stopped them. CarbonCrop believes their technology helps simplify access to carbon markets and maximise carbon income. The approach from Tāmata Hauhā is a profit share arrangement where landholders provide the land and Tāmata Hauhā finances and delivers the planting of the new forest and all ongoing forest management activities. The partnership gives landowners a clear pathway to understanding and realising the potential of their land, with low up-front cost.
Butcher says, “Landowners restoring native and biodiverse forests – the forests we most want to encourage – face significant challenges in leveraging carbon markets and incentives. Native forests currently make up only around 17% of the forest in the ETS. Working together with Tāmata Hauhā we can change this.“
The partnership will also help address the challenge of access. Māori land is often in more remote areas making access and health and safety more difficult. CarbonCrop leverages a combination of data, AI, satellite imagery, and automation to enable scalable monitoring and verification of carbon removals across extensive areas of mixed-species, biodiverse forests.
Jamieson says, “Our kaupapa and focus is unashamedly for the restoration of the whenua, its people, and their prosperity – using carbon forestry as the waka. If we can make the waka go faster to access the ‘actually-doing-stuff funding’ for Māori, that’s a good thing.”
ENDS
About CarbonCrop
CarbonCrop is a climate tech company applying AI to carbon forestry. Founded in Nelson in 2020 and growing rapidly, CarbonCrop is on a mission to make it simpler for landowners with all types of forest to get paid to protect and restore forests by giving them easy access to carbon markets. This delivers stronger farm economics, less carbon in the atmosphere heating up the planet, and improved climate resilience and biodiversity of our landscapes. CarbonCrop has received a repayable grant from Callaghan Innovation in April 2021, as part of their tech incubator program, through WNT Ventures.
About Tāmata Hauhā
Tāmata Hauhā works in partnership with landowners providing funding and project management to establish forests on their land. They provide options to ensure the whenua is looked after long-term, turning non-productive Māori land into productive and profitable assets. They are committed to supporting landowners, and the restoration of their land to create economic prosperity and well-being. Tāmata Hauhā are about to launch their latest opportunity which is large scale Renewable Energy Solar Farms.
Media Enquiries
Tāmata Hauhā
Lequan Meihana
Regional Advisor and Communications
027 209 1175
lequan@tamata.co.nz
CarbonCrop
Rebecca Hunink
Head of Marketing
027 3743 519
rebecca.hunink@carboncrop.com
