Update – 4 December 2024
Limits to converting farmland to exotic forestry registered in the ETS
The Government has announced policy changes intended to limit how much farmland is converted to forest and registered in the ETS. The regulations are intended to come into effect in October 2025.
Read more about the announcement below
Update – 14 October 2024
Independent review of forestry ETS operational costs
The Minister of Forestry requested an independent review into the operational costs of the forestry ETS run by Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service. The review focused on whether the current operation of forestry ETS services:
- meets the needs of participants
- is fit-for-purpose, scalable, and has the ability to adapt to future change
- is on track to achieve the intended benefits of the ETS transformation programme, and
- is being run in a cost effective way, given it is a bespoke service.
Read the review report:
Review of forestry ETS operational costs – Grant Thornton (7 June 2024) [PDF, 1.8 MB]
Keep informed with the Forestry ETS Alert
Keep informed about forestry in the Emissions Trading Scheme by subscribing to the Forestry ETS Alert. This email newsletter replaced the Sustainable Forestry Bulletin.
Subscribe to the Forestry ETS Alert
Previous newsletters
For earlier editions, email etschanges@mpi.govt.nz
- 6 December 2024
Managing whole farm conversions to exotic forestry, upcoming Request for Information (RFI) on afforestation on Crown-owned land - 23 October 2024
Have your say and attend webinars on resetting the Emissions Trading Scheme annual charge for post-1989 forestry participants - 15 October 2024
Change in process for incomplete applications to register land in the ETS, using planting documents as evidence for planting young saplings, Maximising Forest Carbon web page - 17 September 2024
Upcoming Tupu-ake outages, latest Tupu-ake release, new reports in Tupu-ake, IRD consultating on an interpretation statement on tax and the Forestry ETS - 2 August 2024
Registering new plantings, EPA to publish section 89/89A emissions reporting, common errors in applications, how to find your GST receipts in Tupu-ake
Changes to the ETS in 2025
Limits to converting farmland to exotic forestry registered in the ETS
On 4 December 2024, the Government announced policy changes intended to limit how much farmland is converted to exotic forest and registered in the ETS. The regulations are intended to come into effect in October 2025.
The policy includes a moratorium (ban) on registering exotic forest in the ETS on land use capability (LUC) class 1 to 5 land that has been converted from farmland. It also includes a limit on how much medium versatility farmland is converted to ETS forest land.
There are some exemptions. Farmers can still convert some of their farm to forest and register it in the ETS. Other exemptions include the ability for landowners who have already taken steps to establish forestry investments to continue with these.
Under the policy, limits include:
- a moratorium (ban) on registering exotic species of forest land in the ETS if planted on land use capability (LUC) class 1 to 5 farmland
- a national annual hectare limit of 15,000 hectares for exotic forest land registered in the ETS if planted on LUC class 6 farmland.
The policy allows:
- rights to be allocated to register exotic forests in the ETS on LUC class 6 farmland via a first-in, first-served allocation system
- up to 25% of LUC class 1 to 6 land on a farm to be exempt from the above limits
- for transitional exemptions for foresters who were in the process of afforestation before this announcement and can provide evidence of this dated before 4 December 2024, such as a land purchase agreement, or seedling order.
Certain types of Māori land also have an exemption under the policy. This includes:
- Māori land held under Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993
- land on which the status was changed to general land under the Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1967
- land pursuant to a Treaty settlement
There are no limits on ETS registrations on:
- LUC class 7 to 8 farmland
- forest land already registered in the ETS
- native (indigenous) forest registrations in the ETS.
People wanting to register forest land into the ETS will be able to use a default, national scale, LUC map. To provide flexibility, and recognise the coarse scale of national level mapping, there will be an option to undertake property scale assessment of LUC and use this.
Media release: Managing whole farm conversions to exotic forestry – Beehive
