The industry

In our vision, the best way to see the return to native forestry, is to utilise the profits from the carbon sequestration captured and stored by exotic species.

Tāmata Hauhā has no desire to push a monoculture on you, nor blanket plant pine trees across the country. We have options with many other exotic varieties to create forestry that can sequester large amounts of carbon whilst also producing opportunities for diversification as well as habitat and food supply for our fauna.

The focus of Tāmata Hauhā is around he whenua, he tāngata, he taurikura. And we do not want to miss the opportunities that the returns from exotic forests will create.

Tāmata Hauhā want to acknowledge that we have shared aspirations to be planting 100% native forestry – as people of the land we connect back to them. However, it should be noted that the returns from exotic forests are up to ten times greater than those from native forests. That is why Tāmata Hauhā believes if landowners start with exotics with the option to slowly transition or include more natives, they will see wider outcomes for the family and landowners. For example, over a 30-year period, landowners would likely receive $24,000 more (as returns) per hectare from exotic forests than natives. Providing the resourcing to invest in our social needs as well as diversity or invest in people as an outcome.

Tāmata Hauhā believes we can get to where we all want to be, if we take a long-term approach by utilising the profits from the carbon of exotic forests. This approach will enable whānau and landowners to deliver intergenerational benefits and wellbeing for their younger generation and those still to come.