OPINION: Productive whole farmlands conversions into forestry are becoming a thorny issue for the Government. Last week the Government was served a stern message by sheep and beef farmers - get your policy settings right or forget about reaching your ambitious target of doubling exports by 2030. The ire of the red meat sector was triggered when the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme - Forestry Conversion) Amendment Bill returned from the environment select committee. Instead of listening to farmers and extending the moratorium on whole farm conversions to all land classes, the select committee extended the moratorium to land use capability (LUC) classes 1-5. However, 89% of whole farm conversions to date have occurred on LUC 6-8. Since 2017, at least 300,000 hectares of sheep and beef farms have been sold to forestry interests, with another 50,000 hectares expectec before these rules take effect. Without fixing these gaps, we will likely lose a million hectares by 2050, slashing stock numbers by more than 20%, and rural towns across the country will be hollowed out, according to Beef + Lamb NZ. B+LNZ chair Kate Acland says New Zealand is one of only two countries in the world - alongside Kazakhstan - that allows unlimited forestry offsets in its ETS. "We're not against forestry - our proposals don't stop planting for harvest, they simply prevent the ETS from distorting land use decisions in ways that undermine food production and rural communities," she says. Read More: Government policies threaten NZ's 2030 export goals, farmers warn Select Committee 'blew it' - Feds B+LNZ warns proposed ETS changes still allow farmland to become carbon farms New Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Richard Dawkins warns that if the Government don't resolve these issues, carbon farming on classes 6 and 7 will accelerate over the coming months and years. He has a message for the Government - take farmer concerns seriously - because if they don't, this will undermine the viability of the red meat sector. We say forestry is important to NZ, but the sector's growth shouldn't come at the expense of sheep and beef farming. Productive whole farmland going into forestry is not the way to go. #FORESTRY_CONVERSIONS