Consultation document - National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation

Consultation on proposals to update the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forests (NES-PF) are now open until 18 November 2022. Ngā Pou a Tāne encourage Māori landowners to provide feedback on the MPI Discussion Document.

The Government has confirmed the permanent forest category will remain unchanged in the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and will come into effect on 1 January 2023 as currently legislated. However, to ensure the best outcomes for permanent afforestation, the Government has established a working group of Māori and other technical forestry experts to help redesign the settings of the NZ ETS permanent forestry category in the future. See this article for more detail.

The NES-PF consultation will consider expanding the scope of the existing NES-PF to ensure the environmental effects of permanent exotic forests are managed.

The following is being consulted on:

·       Managing the environmental effects of exotic carbon forests.

·       Controlling the location of permanent and exotic carbon afforestation to manage social, cultural, and economic effects.

·       Improving wildfire risk management in all exotic forests. 

·       Addressing key findings of the Year One Review of the NES-PF.

You can find the consultation documents, and keep up to date with the consultation and next steps by visiting at the MPI website. The consultation document contains details of the proposed national direction and how it is consistent with the Resource Management Act.