At the end of October 2008, Greenpeace New Zealand protestors chained themselves to logging equipment and called for a halt to forest conversion for intensive dairy farming. Greenpeace claims that around a quarter of the country's forest plantation is being cleared to make way for intensive dairy farming.
Greenpeace argues that "dairy conversion of forestry land functions as a double whammy on the climate - it destroys forests and replaces them with one of the most greenhouse gas intensive forms of land use." New Zealand's agricultural sector accounts for nearly 50% of the country's GHG emissions.
Note that New Zealand is in the process of developing and phasing in an emissions trading scheme, and agriculture will be included within its auspices. Australia is also developing its own emissions trading scheme in which agriculture will be included (a little later than other sectors, in 2015).
However one of the country's major think tanks- the Australia Institute - argues that it would be too complicated to include agriculture (since measuring emissions are so difficult and variable) and instead a levy on production would be a more effective way to reduce the sector's emissions.
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