Trees could be planted on a million hectares of Maori land over the next decade - if the Government does something about the carbon credit price collapse, an iwi group says.
Their value has slumped to just a few dollars a unit, due to the economic downturn and the trading of cheap foreign credits
The credits are sold and bought under the emissions trading scheme, which was set up to encourage the growing of trees to absorb carbon dioxide.
A spokesperson for the iwi leadership group on climate change, Chris Karamea Insley, says it has a planting plan - but the Crown needs to back it.
Regional Maori economies will be stimulated if the price of units is increased to at least $15, and a buoyant carbon credit market will provide an incentive to plant large-scale forests on Maori land of up to 100,000 hectares every year for 10 years, he says.
