Post-1989 forest land that is not restricted from entering the ETS

If you made investments as part of preparing to plant exotic trees on LUC class 1 to 6 land to register in the ETS before 4 December 2024, you may be able to apply to register the forest  land using a transitional exemption.

You must meet certain requirements to be eligible for this.

Registering LUC class 1 to 6 and with a transitional exemption

There are no restrictions on applying to register forest on exempt Māori land. The list of exempt Māori land is in the Climate Change Response Act 2002. 

Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme—Forestry Conversion) Amendment Bill

When you apply to register forest on exempt Māori land, you’ll need to provide land titles for the land. 

If your land is exempt Māori land, but it is not recorded in the Māori Land Court database, you will need to give us information to show the land is exempt Māori land.

There are no restrictions on applying to register forest on land that is defined as at high or severe risk of erosion in a regional or district council plan.

When you apply to register forest on this land, you need to show us where in the plan the land is identified as highly or severely erosion prone.

There are no restrictions on applying to register a forest on Crown afforestation land.

Crown afforestation land means Crown-owned land that is available for planting trees. It excludes land that is used by Landcorp Farming Limited for farming, or land administered under the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998.

When you apply to register forest on Crown afforestation land in the ETS, you need to:

• provide land titles for the land you want to register
• provide evidence that shows you can plant trees on the land – for example, a copy of a contract with the Crown to plant trees on the land.

There are no restrictions on applying to register forests in areas that are not included in the LUC classes on the national scale LUC map (the NZLRI map).

How to identify the LUC class of your land

There are no restrictions on applying to register native (indigenous) forestry in the ETS.

There are no restrictions on applying to register forest on land that was forest land on 31 October 2025. This land is “existing forest land”.

Read about what counts as "forest land" in the ETS

There are no restrictions on applying to register forest on unfarmed land.  

Unfarmed land means that none of the land in the land title:

• has been used for farming purposes in the 5 years before applying to register it in the ETS, and
• is LUC class 1 to 6 land that is forest land with mostly* exotic forest species that were planted in the 5 years after the land stopped being used for farming purposes.

What are farming purposes?

Farming purposes can be:

• arable
• horticultural
• pastoral land use, or
• a mix of these.

If any land on a land title is used for farming purposes, the whole title is considered to be actively farmed.

Applying to register unfarmed land in the ETS

When you apply to register unfarmed land, you need to:

• provide a statutory declaration to say that, to the best of your knowledge, all of the land on the titles is unfarmed
• provide the land titles for the land you want to register.

Statutory declaration for unfarmed land

You must complete a statutory declaration and include it with your application if you are applying to register unfarmed land in the ETS. In submitting it, you are making a legally binding declaration that, to the best of your knowledge, all of the land on the titles is unfarmed land.

A statutory declaration is a formal written document that you provide when you need to confirm that something is true. It must be signed and witnessed by an official person face-to-face.

Statutory declaration when applying to register restricted forest land in the ETS as unfarmed land [PDF, 270 KB]

You will need to upload this form when you apply to register in the ETS.

There are no restrictions on applying to register forest on LUC class 7 and 8 land.    

The land must be identified as LUC class 7 or 8, either:

• on the national scale LUC map (the NZLRI map), or
• through a property scale LUC assessment.

How to identify the LUC class of your land