Challenges and Opportunities With Native Forestry on Māori Land

Domestically and abroad, government policies aim to increase afforestation and provide the many environmental and social benefits that afforestation can deliver. For multiply-owned Māori land in Aotearoa New Zealand, decision-makers often face extra challenges that may hinder their ability to meet aspirations for afforesting their land, despite the availability of various support programmes. We explore the decision-making processes of a sample of Māori landowners in Te Tairāwhiti to understand the extent to which funding programmes and afforestation incentives from the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme enable them to meet their own aspirations for their land. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 Māori land-use decision-makers that represent a range of Māori landowner entity types, including Māori incorporations, ahuwhenua trusts, ahuwhenua trusts administered by Te Tumu Paeroa and family trusts. Several key challenges emerged that are faced by our sample of Māori land decision-makers. These relate to: the historical context of Māori land use and development; governance; accessing expertise and resourcing; communication; the logistics of native forestry establishment; and challenges specific to the NZ ETS. We also identified key areas where additional support could yield substantial gains for Māori land decision-makers. These include increasing access to understandable and context-specific expert advice; investing in lasting working relationships; providing support to develop robust business cases and planting plans for native forestry; tailoring policy to be flexible to individual land blocks’ starting lines; and tailoring policy to acknowledge the ways in which Māori traditionally engaged with native forestry.