Science Media Centre

New Zealand’s use of ‘hot air’ credits from Ukraine and Russia means we are cheating on our climate commitments, says a new report from the Morgan Foundation. The report, Climate Cheat, released this morning, outlines the rise of questionable carbon credits provided by the Ukraine and Russia in  2011-12, and New Zealand’s use of these […]

The Government is restarting a forestry scheme that will pay landowners to plant forests, aiming to prevent erosion, improve water quality and mitigate our greenhouse gas emissions. This week the Government confirmed the Afforestation Grant Scheme will invest $22.5 million in forest planting over the next 6 years. The scheme provides grants of $1,300 a […]

Kauri, one of New Zealand’s most iconic tree species, are dying. It is becoming apparent that Kauri Dieback disease is here to stay. But how widespread is the pathogen behind Dieback? Can we hold off the disease using fungicides? Or could we breed a new generation of Kauri trees resistant to the disease? Ahead of […]

Kauri dieback disease has been detected in the Coromandel Peninsula, a part of the country previously thought to be free of the tree-killing disease. The announcement came this week after tests confirmed the presence of the disease in two trees in Whangapoua Forest north of Whitianga. A 319-hectare section of the forest has been closed […]

New Zealand Herald feature writer Chris Barton looks at the scientific efforts underway in New Zealand to yield biofuel from forestry – and the barriers to expansion of this clean technology development. An excerpt: Scion studies have shown those forests could be a huge, sustainable source of feedstock, especially if waste from trimmings, cutting and […]

Christchurch researchers have retrospectively analysed the Canterbury quakes from the perspective of urban forest management, highlighting the important role trees and greenspaces played during the earthquakes. In the research article, published this week in the journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, researchers point out how rows trees acted as sheltering barricades against falling debris and […]

An editorial in the Dominion Post examines the issue of GM in New Zealand  following an activist attack on a research plantation of genetically modified pines near Rotorua. An excerpt (read in full here): Editorial: GM vandals’ acts misguided The greatest environmental threat posed by the field trial of genetically modified pine trees at Rotorua […]

In an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, Brian Fallow writes about COP16, the latest international climate change talks, which are currently taking place in Cancun, Mexico. Unlike COP15, the heavily-publicised but ultimately ill-fated talks in Copenhagen last year, this year’s talks are a far quieter affair, and it isn’t expected that any major […]

There has been a great deal of debate over New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in recent months, with the controversy hotting up particularly over the last few days. Federated Farmers and the ACT party are in strenuous opposition to the Scheme, which they say will cost farmers (and New Zealanders as a whole) too […]

Associate Professor Euan G. Mason, from School of Forestry, University of Canterbury, and Member of the New Zealand Royal Society, has provided the SMC with a follow-up on his previous comments. His previous commentaries, which can be found here and here, related to the impacts of the revised Emissions Trading Scheme on demand for carbon […]