A farm forester says the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) hasn't been the incentive it was meant to be for growing trees because it has been effectively scuttled by the Government.
Forestry was the first sector to be brought into the ETS because carbon credits from trees could be used to off-set the cost of green house gas emissions.
But Middle Districts Farm Forestry Association chairman Denis Hocking says it hasn't worked out that way.
He says the current level of deforestation and accelerated harvesting of 1990s plantings will leave New Zealand with very high net emission levels over the next 10 to 15 years, and potentially a big bill for taxpayers.
