About the AGS
This scheme was replaced by the One Billion Trees Fund in December 2018.
The Afforestation Grant Scheme (AGS) was a funding programme designed to help establish 15,000 hectares of new forest in New Zealand between 2015 and 2020. It was designed to help:
- reduce soil erosion
- improve land-use productivity and boost regional economic development
- store carbon and improve water quality.
To help reach those goals, MPI provided grants of $1,300 per hectare for growers to plant new small to medium-sized forests (5 hectares to 300 hectares).
All available funding was committed between 2015 and 2018. Successful grant applicants in the 2018 funding round were approved for grants which matched the higher One Billion Trees grant rates.
The AGS has helped landowners achieve positive economic outcomes by:
- helping them plant trees on erosion-prone land
- regenerating indigenous forests
- reducing some of the high costs associated with marginal land.
New forests established by the AGS since 2015 have also delivered environmental benefits like reducing soil erosion, improving water quality, and absorbing around 1.9 million tonnes of carbon every year.
From 2008 to 2013, just under 12,000 hectares of new forest was planted under a previous AGS scheme.
Download a map showing the forests developed under the original AGS scheme [PDF, 7.8 MB]
Managing your forest under an AGS grant
MPI will continue to monitor your forest to make sure it continues to meet the AGS establishment criteria. After 10 years, you're free to do as you choose with your forest.
If you’d like to apply for your forest to join the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) after 10 years (or after 6 years for grants approved in 2018), find out more about the ETS:
If you sell or transfer your forest to someone else within 10 years, you must notify MPI. We’ll help you transfer your grant agreement to the new owner. Schedule 4 of the AGS contract has a deed of novation template (a deed of novation is where one party transfers its rights and obligations under a contract to another party.)
Deed of novation template [PDF, 112 KB]
Who to contact
If you are registered under the AGS and have questions about a current or previous grant, email forestgrants@mpi.govt.nz
