Draft Town Belt Management Plan - Wellington City Council

public use of the area. This is also important to help reduce the Town Belt as a potential reservoir
of weed infestation for other areas.
One of the key contributors to weed establishment and spread in the Town Belt is the ongoing
dumping of garden waste and movement of weed seeds from residential properties that back onto
Town Belt.
Due to the large number of pests, the greatest challenge for the Town Belt and citywide is to
correctly prioritise control and use resources effectively.
5.3.3 Carbon management
As part of the Council's climate change work programme the Council:
• is placing eligible land into the Government's forest sink programmes so that it can
generate emission unit returns on an annual basis
• has requested an allocation of emission units for the Council's older pine forest land (ie
forest established before 1 Jan 1990).
Some Town Belt areas have been included in the Council's forest sink work programme. This
includes:
1. 1.2ha of post-1989 pine forest located on Berhampore Golf Course entered by the
Council into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Owners of post-1989 forest land (as well
as those with rights to post-1989 forests), who voluntarily enter the ETS, earn carbon
credits called New Zealand Units (NZUs) as their forests grow. If and when the forest owner
harvests their ETS forests, the owner must pay back the Government the NZUs that are
equivalent to the amount of carbon lost through harvesting.
2. 103.45 hectares of pre-1990 pine forests for which Council requested an allocation
under the ETS. Pre-1990 forest landowners were eligible for a one-off allocation of NZUs
from the Government.
3 16ha of indigenous forest near Mt Albert that the Council is seeking to register in the
Permanent Forest Sink Initiative (PFSI). The PFSI scheme promotes the establishment of
permanent indigenous or exotic forests on previously unforested land with the aim of
reducing climate-change effects.
5.4 Objectives
5.4.1 Ensure the protection of indigenous habitats on the Town Belt so that:
• the biodiversity of the Town Belt is protected, enhanced and functions as a
well-connected system
• pest plants and animals are controlled efficiently and effectively.
5.4.2 Restore and enhance streams and indigenous ecosystems on the Town Belt so
that:
• stormwater is managed and sedimentation minimised
• communities are motivated, inspired and educated to get involved in
restoration projects on the Town Belt.
5.4.3 Gradually increase the indigenous vegetation cover on the Town Belt so that:
• citywide ecological connectivity is improved and existing ecosystems
enhanced
• the ecological resilience of the city is improved.
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Draft Town Belt Management Plan October 2012