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If your forest has been damaged by an event outside your control
If you have post-1989 forest land in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), you must account for changes to the amount of carbon it stores.
Natural disasters and other accidental events can damage forest land. Where this damage fells, burns, kills, uproots, or destroys the forest, the forest is treated as cleared in the ETS. This can result in a need to pay (surrender) New Zealand Units (NZUs or units) for the decrease in stored carbon.
From 2023, you can apply to pause carbon accounting if such an event damages your forest. This is called a "temporary adverse event suspension". If your application is approved, you won’t need to pay units for the decrease in stored carbon.
This pause will last until your forest:
- is re-established (replanted or regenerated), and
- achieves the same level of carbon storage as it had before the event.
This is available for all post-1989 forest land registered in the ETS. This is regardless of:
- when it was registered, or
- the accounting method that applies to the land.
However, you can only apply for a pause in accounting if the event that caused the damage meets certain criteria. We’ll explain these criteria below.
About carbon accounting in the ETS
If a natural event has permanently prevented forest from being re-established on your land, you do not need to apply for this suspension. You must remove this land that has been permanently affected from the ETS. You will not need to pay units for removing this land.
Find out about removing land from the ETS
Types of events that apply
A range of events beyond your control may cause temporary damage to your forest. In the legislation, these are known as "adverse events". These include:
- wind throw
- snowfall, floods, and drought
- landslides
- volcanic eruptions and geothermal events
- earthquakes and tsunamis
- pests and diseases
- naturally caused fires
- accidental events (such as browsing by animals and controlled burns becoming uncontrolled).
For your forest to be eligible for a pause in carbon accounting:
- the event must have cleared at least 1 whole hectare of forest land
- the damage must be significant enough that the trees no longer have, or are likely to have, more than 30% crown cover
- the forest must be expected to be re-established, and to store the same amount of carbon as it did before the event
- the event must have occurred after 1 January 2023
- an emissions return cannot have been submitted for the area since the event occurred (unless you're submitting an additional application for an event that's ongoing).
Further clearing after the event
Intentional clearing, such as harvesting, of mortally damaged trees in response to the event is covered by the pause in accounting.
For example, if an area of forest has been mortally damaged by disease but isn't dead yet, you can clear it. The damage from the event must affect at least 1 hectare before you do any clearing, to be eligible.
Additional clearing of non-damaged trees is allowed in some circumstances, such as for:
- health or safety of people
- site access
- preventing further disturbances from the event.
How different forests are affected by a pause in carbon accounting
In the ETS, different responsibilities apply depending on:
- the kind of forest land
- the accounting method
- the area of the post-1989 forest land you have registered.
Carbon accounting can be suspended for post-1989 forest land registered as standard or permanent forestry, and using stock change or averaging accounting.
A pause in carbon accounting affects some of these forests in different ways.
If carbon accounting is paused for your forest in permanent forestry
You can apply to pause accounting for your permanent forest if it's damaged by an event described above. If your application is approved, the usual penalties for clear-felling permanent forest land won't apply.
Further clearing of damaged permanent forest is restricted. You can only clear the damaged trees for health and safety reasons or site access.
Find out more about permanent forests in the ETS
If carbon accounting is paused for forest land with sample plots to measure for carbon tables
If you have 100 hectares or more of post-1989 forest land in the ETS, you need to establish and measure sample plots on your land. The information you collect is used to create carbon tables specifically for your forest. These are known as "participant-specific tables". You need these to calculate the carbon changes in your emissions returns.
Using the Field Measurement Approach in the ETS
Carbon accounting may be paused for forest land with sample plots on it. If this happens, you don't need to collect information at those plots until carbon accounting starts again. You must still measure plots outside the area covered by the suspension as usual.
Damaged land still counts towards the 100-hectare threshold during this time.
If carbon accounting is paused for forest land under averaging accounting
There are 2 methods of carbon accounting in the ETS. If your post-1989 forest land is registered under averaging accounting, the rotation (harvest cycle) that it's on affects whether you can earn units.
Find out more about averaging accounting
If your forest land is on its first rotation when it's damaged and your application to pause carbon accounting is approved, it will still be considered to be on its first rotation when it's re-established. This only applies to the areas of forest land that are re-established within 4 years.
How to apply to pause carbon accounting
Apply to pause carbon accounting before submitting other returns
You need to apply to pause carbon accounting before submitting any emissions return that covers a period after the event that damaged your forest. This includes provisional emissions returns. Unless you do something that requires you to submit an emissions return, you have until the end of the current mandatory emissions return period to apply to pause carbon accounting. This mandatory emissions return period ends on 31 December 2025.
Find out more about when to submit emissions returns when certain situations change
You may want to appoint a representative to help you with this process.
Appointing a representative to manage your ETS tasks
Submit the form
To apply to pause carbon accounting when your forest land has been damaged, complete and submit the form below. To submit the form, upload it to Tupu-ake – Forestry ETS online services.
There is a fee for this service.
Find out the current fee for applying to pause carbon accounting
If your application is approved, you must:
- notify us when your forest land reaches the carbon storage it had before the event
- submit a notice after 4 years that tells us how much of your forest has been re-established.
Apply to pause carbon accounting when your forest is temporarily damaged (temporary adverse event suspension) [PDF, 478 KB]
If your application is approved
If we approve your application, you are responsible for re-establishing the forest. You must report on the progress at certain times, by:
- submitting a notice after the event that tells us how much of your forest has been re-established
- notifying us when your forest land reaches the carbon storage it had before the event.
There are specific requirements your forest land needs to meet to be considered re-established.
Find out more about what you need to do if your application is approved
Find out what happens if you clear or deforest the land while accounting is paused
