The Kiwisaver scheme enrolls wage earners in New Zealand (currently voluntarily) into paying a percentage of their earnings into a fund that is managed on their behalf. The fund may only be accessed under specified conditions: Reaching 65 years old, buying a first home, dying or going bankrupt. The fund forces people to save their income over their life and use it later for later life needs. 

The Government is currently being called on to remove permanent exotic forests from the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. This is due to the sector’s lack of biodiversity, low employment and, more significantly, the strange outcome of land becoming unproductive over time while building a massive financial liability. The Government should not make any changes to the eligibility of the NZETS: permanent exotic forests do remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere and must be rewarded for that just like any other industry (in fact this industry will be the prime solution in the medium term due to its low cost). However, after 100 years the pine forests will no longer be absorbing carbon equivalent emissions and as a mature forest their harvestable timber will be far worse than the typically harvested 30 year old plantations. At this stage the carbon stored in the forest will be a financial liability: any land use change that cuts down those trees will incur a carbon emission cost just like any other eligible emitting activity.

I am concerned that after these many decades have passed the land has been productively exploited and is now unproductive and a liability. Companies who own this land have no incentive to change the land use as it will be too expensive. They may just abandon the land and leave the ‘clean up’ to the Government. 

With this in mind I suggest a Kiwisaver applied to land parcels instead of people. A permanent exotic forest would have a charge added to its rates that would be a contribution to that parcel’s Landsaver account; a managed fund that can only be accessed under specified conditions by the land owner of the day. The specification for permanent exotic forest would be to convert the land into permanent native forest. The contributions would occur while the land is producing carbon credits for its owner but used for land remediation. This costs the Government nothing and will help with remediation costs of commercial property. 

The same Landsaver scheme would be used for many commercial purposes that require remediation when the productive purpose is completed. 

You could apply Landsaver to residential parcels as well, but the specified conditions would be activities that reduce emissions, improve biodiversity or support native ecosystems. This would be solar panel installations, improvements in energy efficiency of the home, native planting or perhaps water efficiency. 

Landsaver, like Kiwisaver, would not be used for emergencies. A land owner would not use the fund for roof repairs, flood damage or other insurable events. If the residential Landsaver fund builds up over many decades without being used, the funds would fund end of life remediation of the building (demolition and dumping) as well as specified improvements in the new building.

The charges would be very low compared to existing rates (say one twentieth of current yearly rates) as it is an invested fund that would make returns and would often go untouched for decades.