About the NEFD
The NEFD is the main source of facts about New Zealand’s exotic production forests. It helps us make informed decisions about the future, and has been published every year since 1985. The NEFD is a tier 1 statistic, which means it’s one of New Zealand’s most important national measures.
Find NEFD and other data on New Zealand’s forests
What is changing?
We want to make the NEFD more accurate, faster to update, and easier for people to use. To do this, we have an improvement programme. Over 3 projects, we will be:
- combining several forestry surveys
- cutting down repeated requests for the same information
- using spatial data, like satellite images, along with computer modelling and machine learning to produce the description of New Zealand's forest estate
- only asking for details that can’t be gathered from this technology
- improving our internal data systems.
We are working with the Bioeconomy Science Institute (Maiangi Taiao) on the first project to produce the exotic forest description from freely available imagery. We expect the first results in September 2026. These will be included in the NEFD release in December 2026.
In April 2026, we will share more updates about the improvement programme and its 3 projects.
What this means for people who use NEFD data
Some NEFD information will now come from satellite images and modelling instead of surveys. This will make the data more complete and up to date. Because of the new methods, some data may look different from past years. As the modelling improves, some results may also change over time. We will explain what has changed and how it fits with older data.
What this means for forest owners and managers
The current NEFD survey will be phased out after 2026. This means less time spent filling out forms. A smaller survey will replace it. This new survey will only ask for things that spatial data cannot show, such as:
- planting plans
- harvest plans
- decisions about planting or deforesting.
We will keep forest owners informed as the new system is rolled out and explain what information is still needed.
Contact us
If you have questions, email teururakau@mpi.govt.nz
