Application wait times and statistics for forestry in the ETS

Table 1: Volumes of applications and associated hectares as at 27 August 2025

Table 2: Wait times for core applications submitted since 1 November 2024

What helps us process your application faster

If your application includes all the documents we need, it will be processed closer to the median wait time. If your application is missing required information, it will take us much longer to process it. In some cases, applications with missing information will be rejected and a partial refund provided.

Our checklist may help you complete the steps to registering.

Checklist for applying to register land in the ETS [PDF, 364 KB]

This information covers the volume of applications to register post-1989 forest land. It is current as at 27 August 2025.

The tables show the number of applications by hectares submitted, processed, and approved as eligible. These are updated monthly and annually. The applications cover both:

• the registration of forest land by new applicants
• adding land to existing ETS registrations.

The hectares processed includes both eligible and ineligible forest land as determined by Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service.

Note: As there is a processing backlog, submitted applications are not generally processed in the month they are received.

Table 1: Applications submitted and number of hectares submitted by month

Table 2: Applications submitted and processed (number of hectares) by year

Note: As there is a processing backlog, submitted applications are not always processed in the year they are received.

Table 1

Find out about requesting a review of a decision about forestry and the ETS

Table 1

In this table:

• 'submitted' means a transfer application has been submitted to us
• 'identified' means we have found a transfer of participation within the 20 working days and are working with the parties involved to complete it.

Read more about transfers of participation and what you need to do

Table 1: Number of hectares and participants in the ETS by month

The Land Use Capability (LUC) system classifies land into 8 categories based on its ability to support various productive uses over time.

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 proposed changes restrict how much LUC class 1 to 6 farmland can be converted to exotic forest and registered in the ETS.

A bill is going through Parliament that proposes these changes. These statistics will not be updated while the Bill is going through the House. 

Read more about the proposed changes

Table 1: Number of hectares registered for each LUC class as of 2 July 2025

The data above excludes applications that are still in progress.

This data is reproduced with the permission of Landcare Research New Zealand Limited.