New Zealand was once a land of productive farms and independent food producers, but it is quietly – insidiously – being taken over by pine monocultures, fast growing water-sapping pine monocultures.
What lies behind the green curtain of ever-expanding pine forests energised by New Zealand’s illogical, irrational carbon trading scheme where once highly productive sheep and beef farms are planted in unmanaged, neglected forests.
Isn’t its real goal more about money for speculators, often corporate in nature, than about environmental sustainability?
Is the real agenda control consolidation and carbon manipulation?
People need to question what is the real agenda hidden beneath the growing monoculture of pine trees.
Emissions Trading
Where did it start?
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was established by the fifth Labour Government and legislation was enacted in 2008 under Prime Minister Helen Clark, who had strong ties to United Nations. It was designed to meet obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Act 2008 passed in September 2008, establishing the framework.
A couple of months later on November 8, an election was held and National became government led by former money trader John Key. Further tinkering by the Key government set up carbon trading. In 2017 Key abruptly resigned on the eve of the 2017 election, received a knighthood and a Labour-led government assumed power led by Jacinda Ardern.
Under the Ardern government (2017–2023), New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) underwent significant reform, but its “open door” welcoming foreign speculator investment for carbon forestry created controversy.
The Labour government faced criticism for allowing “special forestry tests” under the Overseas Investment Act, which made it easier for foreign investors to come to New Zealand and purchase farmland to set up pine plantations to generate carbon credits.
Foreign and corporate entities, often overseas interests have since been buying up farms, especially sheep and beef cattle farms and converting them into radiata pine plantations.
In 2023, the Labour government was dumped and a coalition government headed by National with support from the NZ First and ACT parties was formed.
Coalition Government adjustments
Oddly, in the three years of the coalition government, little or no effort has been made to curb the loss of food producing farms to unattended carbon trading forests, despite rising public concern and strong advocacy from NZ Federated Farmers.
Delving into the detail, it’s not hard to find the reason.
To the contrary, the National/Act/NZ First coalition government has quietly tied the hands of New Zealand to continue carbon trading involving converting farms to pine monocultures by signing up to “The Coalition to Grow Carbon Markets”.
This is a government-led initiative launched in November 2025 at the United Nations COP30 conference by countries including Kenya, Singapore, UK, Canada and New Zealand, and supported by several other countries, to boost “high integrity” carbon credit use.
“It focuses on establishing shared principles for corporate decarbonisation and strengthening standardising carbon markets to mobilise finance.”
Public Concern
Reacting to mounting public concern and opposition, the current New Zealand government in October 2025 did tinker with rules and passed legislation in October 2025 which banned new exotic forest plantations on highly productive land use classes and capped registrations of exotic forest on class 6 land (medium productivity) to 15,000 hectares per year.
This was triggered by the political reality of rapidly growing public concern at the loss of prime cattle and sheep farms to wholesale planting of pine forests that will be destined to become virtually derelict.
Radiata pine trees are fast growing and harvestable in 25 to 30 years. Under the rush by speculators to plant carbon forests, rural communities have been swallowed up and food producing land invaded by hectares of pines. The excuse of so-called “climate change” and carbon offsetting is the agenda behind the pine expansion.
Air lines are major polluters. For example, Air NZ has invested by buying farms so far totalling 10,000 hectares, and repurposing them into pine trees. These trees are grown under the Emissions Trading Scheme and every hectare of pines sequester carbon dioxide on paper, allowing wealthy corporations, many from overseas, to buy credits.
Instead of reducing their emissions they continue to pollute overseas and offset in carbon farming in New Zealand.
Carbon Sponge
The translation of the gobbledegook is New Zealand becomes a carbon sponge for global elites, resulting in depopulation of Kiwi rural communities. Pine tree plantations require almost no human labour unlike farming which keeps communities alive.
Carbon Faming forests employ virtually – if not quite – zero people.
Is the real agenda control consolidation and carbon manipulation?
People need to question what is the real agenda hidden beneath the growing monoculture of pine trees.
Emissions Trading
Where did it start?
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was established by the fifth Labour Government and legislation was enacted in 2008 under Prime Minister Helen Clark, who had strong ties to United Nations. It was designed to meet obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Act 2008 passed in September 2008, establishing the framework.
A couple of months later on November 8, an election was held and National became government led by former money trader John Key. Further tinkering by the Key government set up carbon trading. In 2017 Key abruptly resigned on the eve of the 2017 election, received a knighthood and a Labour-led government assumed power led by Jacinda Ardern.
Under the Ardern government (2017–2023), New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) underwent significant reform, but its “open door” welcoming foreign speculator investment for carbon forestry created controversy.
The Labour government faced criticism for allowing “special forestry tests” under the Overseas Investment Act, which made it easier for foreign investors to come to New Zealand and purchase farmland to set up pine plantations to generate carbon credits.
Foreign and corporate entities, often overseas interests have since been buying up farms, especially sheep and beef cattle farms and converting them into radiata pine plantations.
In 2023, the Labour government was dumped and a coalition government headed by National with support from the NZ First and ACT parties was formed.
Coalition Government adjustments
Oddly, in the three years of the coalition government, little or no effort has been made to curb the loss of food producing farms to unattended carbon trading forests, despite rising public concern and strong advocacy from NZ Federated Farmers.
Delving into the detail, it’s not hard to find the reason.
To the contrary, the National/Act/NZ First coalition government has quietly tied the hands of New Zealand to continue carbon trading involving converting farms to pine monocultures by signing up to “The Coalition to Grow Carbon Markets”.
This is a government-led initiative launched in November 2025 at the United Nations COP30 conference by countries including Kenya, Singapore, UK, Canada and New Zealand, and supported by several other countries, to boost “high integrity” carbon credit use.
“It focuses on establishing shared principles for corporate decarbonisation and strengthening standardising carbon markets to mobilise finance.”
Public Concern
Reacting to mounting public concern and opposition, the current New Zealand government in October 2025 did tinker with rules and passed legislation in October 2025 which banned new exotic forest plantations on highly productive land use classes and capped registrations of exotic forest on class 6 land (medium productivity) to 15,000 hectares per year.
This was triggered by the political reality of rapidly growing public concern at the loss of prime cattle and sheep farms to wholesale planting of pine forests that will be destined to become virtually derelict.
Radiata pine trees are fast growing and harvestable in 25 to 30 years. Under the rush by speculators to plant carbon forests, rural communities have been swallowed up and food producing land invaded by hectares of pines. The excuse of so-called “climate change” and carbon offsetting is the agenda behind the pine expansion.
Air lines are major polluters. For example, Air NZ has invested by buying farms so far totalling 10,000 hectares, and repurposing them into pine trees. These trees are grown under the Emissions Trading Scheme and every hectare of pines sequester carbon dioxide on paper, allowing wealthy corporations, many from overseas, to buy credits.
Instead of reducing their emissions they continue to pollute overseas and offset in carbon farming in New Zealand.
Carbon Sponge
The translation of the gobbledegook is New Zealand becomes a carbon sponge for global elites, resulting in depopulation of Kiwi rural communities. Pine tree plantations require almost no human labour unlike farming which keeps communities alive.
Carbon Faming forests employ virtually – if not quite – zero people.
Forestry empties land which some say aligns with globalist strategies to concentrate people in smart cities and vacate rural zones for future resource control, destruction of food sovereignty, replacing farmland with pine forest which means less domestic food production. This forces nations to rely more on global food imports, increasing dependency on centralised supply chains the same ones tied to digital ID, Central Bank Digital Currencies and climate compliance.
Soil and water damage
Radiata pine trees are thirsty and drain water tables, streams and consequently rivers. Pine trees are high-water consumers with some species said to absorb over 500 litres daily, leading to much reduced stream flows and heavy environmental impact.
Pine forests make soils high in acids and leave behind sterile land, described as impoverished. Converting it back to farm land with countless stump removals and then restoring natural fertility, is high expensive.
But post-harvest needles are highly acidic and suppress native regrowth and after logging, land is often too degraded to be farmed again.
While rural communities decline alarmingly and may even vanish, it also impacts on outdoor active New Zealanders as foreign firms deny access and erect locked gates where once family farms readily granted access for tramping, hunting and fishing and other outdoor recreation.
Environmental damage
It’s been well chronicled that monocultures of pines result in a loss of biodiversity, depletion of natural stream flows, acidification, soil decline etc., In addition there are two other detrimental consequences, one real the other potential.
Wilding pines have magnified into a major problem. Pine forests particularly those of an unattended, haphazard nature as with carbon farming, are seed banks for wilding pine spread.
Wilding pine spread in New Zealand poses a significant economic and ecological threat, with potential costs, it is said, of up to $4.6 billion to $5.3 billionover the next 50 years if left unchecked.
The invasive trees currently affect nearly 2 million hectares, with 90,000 hectares added annually, impacting native biodiversity, water catchments, and pastoral land.
The potential for fire hazard is considerable particularly in unmanaged carbon farming forests in dry, drought-prone summers.
Greed of Corporates
Behind the loss of pasture to pine monocultures are multinational timber corporate companies, speculative investors and carbon trading firms, said to be often connected to the World Bank, Black Rock and even Sovereign Wealth funds.
“Greed is paramount – follow the money trail” commented one Wairarapa conservationist.
“They are not planting trees to heal the earth, they’re turning land into assets, forestry into currency for trading and Nature into data streams”, said another critic.
The final truth is, this isn’t reforestation or any benevolent outlook on the environment. It’s about money with forests feeding the money merry-go-round and forests feeding the ideological machine.
Watch the land because those who control it, control the future.
Footnote: The latest issue of ”Foreign Control Watchdog” (December 2025) of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) lists Overseas Investment Office decisions on applications for foreigners to invest in New Zealand. Several were for forestry. For example ANZLAFF NZ Ltd were given the go-ahead to acquire 3,182 hectares of land in Otago and Southland. The vendors were multiple NZ forestry entities.
ANZLAFF NZ Ltd., comprises Germany 64%, Australia 21%, Sweden 10% and various 5%, owned by 14 overseas institutional investors.
CAFCA commented “decision-making may increasingly reflect the priorities of foreign investors rather than local environmental, economic or community interests—-highlighting ongoing debates around balancing foreign investment, sustainable forestry practices and national interest in New Zealand.”
Tony Orman, once a town and country planner, is now a part-time journalist and author. This article was first published HERE
11 comments:
I congratulate Tony Orman for uncovering political TREASON in our own country. The perpetrators are the entire political cabal on both sides of the house permitting this damage to continue. Its current trajectory is guaranteed to do more damage to New Zealand for generations to come than a full scale invasion by a marauding army.
“This current Govt’s light weight farm-to-forestry restrictions will still let ten Lake Taupo’s of sheep and beef land convert by 2050! “
Is there no end to this delusional pursuit of Net-Zero that’s destroying western civilisation? Oh to have sensible leadership that recognises this and calls it out as a giant “Con Job”.
Thank you to Tony Orman for this comment. He covers the points exactly, especially as he addresses the social consequences of radiata monoculture, as it will destroy the social infrastructure of those areas planted. This has been amply demonstrated in areas of the East Coast where whole, and large, properties were mass planted pines before and after Cyclone Bola, and with government assistance following it. This, however, had nothing to do with carbon credits, but land that was environmentally unstable under pasture. The social effect, however, has been the same.
These newly planted areas may or may not be subject to silviculture, which, even were harvesting is the object, is now increasingly not happening. But even where it is, it will be by flying gangs from urban areas of fit young men - pruning trees is hard work. If no management, then the act of planting is the first and last human activity.
Late last year the Government did something to arrest this problem. Hopefully it will have a worthwhile effect, but it is difficult to know why it took so long. In my district of CHB, last winter several large properties were acquired by outside interests and blanket planted in radiata. This was easy country, productive and well farmed, as it had been from the 1850s. It is hard to see that this dramatic land-use change will ever be reversed. Like most rural areas, this is heartland National Party country. It was slow to awaken to an issue that has been coming to the boil for the best part of a decade.
Orman also discusses the effects on soil health and downstream flow reduction for pines are thirsty plants. Another is the harbour of pests, most especially deer.
However, comment is also made on the issue of wilding trees – mostly, but not necessarily, pine species. This is an enormous problem, especially in the South Island. But this is entirely a separate issue requiring different solutions. Unlike plantation invasion, it can not be arrested through legislation. (The photo of pines in the column wilding and don’t fit the thrust of the text. The second is of clear-wood logs, which are unlikely to be the result of the pine trees we are talking about here.)
Finally, it should be said that we must not be too hard on pinus radiata. It plays a vital role in our economy as a versatile building material and as an earner of overseas funds. But it has a right place, and a wrong one.
Wow!! So grass is not a monoculture?
"So grass is not a monoculture?" Maybe not, but pasture is.
Oops, a double negative there. How about "maybe (grass is a monoculture), but pasture isn't."
Pasture is made up of several species of grasses (in botany the plural is used for more than one grass species) as well as some other kinds of plants such as legumes, so no way is it a monoculture. Natural grasslands aren't either.
Unless these pine trees, or their timber exist for several billions of years, they are not carbon sinks.
Therefore you can assume that carbon credits are a scam and our politicians are gullible imposing this nonsense.
Luxon, got the gonads yo address this ?
Nah, still got the blinkers on to all the important issues.
Spot on Anonymous 1.32pm. And because our govt lacks the intelligence to realise that they being conned by this climate scam, our little country will lose farmland to foreign investors and wreck our ability to expand our sheep and beef export industry. Like their international political counterparts, are free of any form of accountability after leaving this catastrophe in their wake.
Ever get the feeling you are being manipulated in your own country?No discussion, no better ideas, no controls, good land going to pine forests, carbon trading schemes, money to a foreign entity (the UN), no choices.
Thank you for speaking truth.
What of the soil beneath pine trees? I have been told after three crops it is too acidic for the trees and everything else.
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