Gisborne landowners will benefit from $7.6 million in funding allocated to their district council to treat eroded and erosion-prone land.
According to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), the funding comes from the Erosion Control Funding Programme, which was approved by Uru Rākau Forestry New Zealand. It will be spent on 5,079 hectares of erosion-prone land across 64 properties in the district.
The Gisborne District Council has worked hard with landowners to facilitate applications for land that needed this work, which resulted in almost three times the usual number of applications, MPI director of investment programmes Steve Penno said.
“The criteria for these funding decisions links to our overarching aims for land management through the One Billion Trees Programme – we need to get the right trees in the right places for the right purposes,” he noted. “That means making decisions for the best sustainable land use for now, in five years’ time, and in 20 and 30 years’ time.”
The Erosion Control Funding Programme was established in 1992. This year’s funding round opened in May and was extended until mid-July. To date, 42,000 hectares have been treated.
