Native forests: Catching carbon and combating climate change

DOC is the steward of the great majority of New Zealand’s natural forests (about 70% of our remaining indigenous forests are on public conservation land).

Our forests are fabulous in so many ways but, one of the coolest things they do is remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—carbon dioxide being one of the main heat-trapping greenhouse gases affecting climate change.

While we’re all busy adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by driving cars, using electricity, heating our homes… our forests are working hard to offset it, gobbling as much as they can.

So, our forests are not only cool, but they’re literally keeping us cool.

Interestingly, the forests that store the most carbon per hectare, are those that are full of native birds and plants; and on average our national parks store 17% more carbon per hectare than forests on the remainder of New Zealand’s public conservation land.

The moral of the story? We need our forests. They help us. They are good. Very good.

Also, national parks rock.

That is all.