The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has today opened the 2017 funding round of the Erosion Control Funding Programme (ECFP).
The ECFP is designed to help Gisborne land owners facing erosion issues as the region is susceptible to regular weather events that cause soil erosion and downstream flooding.
MPI’s Acting Director of Investment Programmes, Steve Penno, says the ECFP funds a range of treatment solutions to best suit the land.
"Eligible land owners can apply for ECFP funding to pay for planting of trees, returning farm land back to native scrub, or establishing exotic or indigenous forestry," says Mr Penno.
"Changes have been made to the fund to provide funding upfront, which reduces the financial burden on land owners. We have also widened the land categories eligible so that we can support more land owners with moderate to severe erosion issues."
Eligibility criteria are as follows:
- Eligible land treatments include indigenous and exotic plantation forestry, wide spaced poplar and willow planting, and retiring areas to enable the regeneration of native scrub (reversion treatments).
- All Overlay 3A land and Land Use Capability classes VIe, VIIe and VIIIe are now eligible.
- Eligible landowners can receive up to $2,000 per hectare for forestry and reversion treatments, and up to $26 per pole for poplar and willow treatments.
- Financial grants are available for land treatments to be commenced in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
In February this year, MPI also announced further changes to the ECFP which will enable community groups, iwi and other organisations to apply for funding for projects that look at reducing erosion in the region. Access to this project funding is available year round and more information on eligibility and the application process will be available early June.
