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National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation

Have your say

We are consulting on 4 topics relating to afforestation and management of plantation and exotic carbon forests. The proposals seek to:

  • manage the environmental effects of all exotic carbon forests
  • control the location of afforestation (plantation and exotic carbon) to manage social, cultural, and economic effects
  • improve wildfire management in all plantation and exotic carbon forests
  • address the most important findings of the Year One Review of the NES-PF (National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry) regulations.

Consultation document

National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation [PDF, 1.8 MB]

Related documents

Interim Regulatory Impact Statement [PDF, 1002 KB]

NES-PF Questions and Answers [PDF, 187 KB]

Background information

The Government is proposing changes to the NES-PF. These changes aim to enable better management of both plantation and exotic carbon forests.

In New Zealand, we are seeing greater investment in forestry due to:

  • demand for wood products
  • a developing bioeconomy
  • a large increase in the price of carbon
  • forestry's role in sequestering carbon, which is critical to reaching our emissions reduction goals.

Find out more about the NES-PF

Increasing carbon prices in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) may lead to levels of permanent exotic afforestation that are higher than expected.

If large-scale changes in land use are not managed well, they could have a harmful effect on the environment, rural communities, and regional economies.  We need to ensure the right forest is planted in the right place, for the right purpose, and managed in the right way.

The proposed changes aim to achieve the government’s goals set out in the Emissions Reduction Plan.

Find out about the Emissions Reduction Plan – Ministry for the Environment

National Direction for Plantation and Exotic Carbon Afforestation Consultation Webinar – Youtube (1.34.37)

Making your submission

We encourage you to fill out the online submission form. You may answer as many or as few questions as you like.

Submission template - online

If you are sending us a submission by email, we encourage you to use the submission template, which has the same questions as the online form.

Submission template [DOCX, 129 KB]

When you have completed your submission, email it by 5pm on 18 November 2022 to mpi.forestry@mpi.govt.nz

Make sure you tell us in your submission:

  • the title of the consultation document – "National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation"
  • your name and title
  • your organisation's name (if you are submitting on behalf of an organisation, and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it)
  • your contact details (such as phone number, address, and email).

If you prefer to make your submission in writing, print the submission template and send it to:

Forestry and Bioeconomy Policy
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140
New Zealand.

Submissions are public information

Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.

People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA.

If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.

Official Information Act 1982 – NZ Legislation

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