About 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 a hectare for growers to plant new small to medium-sized forests (5 hectares to 300 hectares). The successful grant applicants in the 2018 funding round have been approved for grants which match the higher One Billion Trees grant rates.
Between 2015 and 2018, MPI held 4 four funding rounds for AGS. All available funding was committed in the first 3 rounds. Planting under grants approved in the 2018 funding round will continue until the winter of 2020.
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]
Claiming your approved AGS grant
Planting of all approved grants will continue until 2020.
Let us know once your forest is established, and we’ll come and visit your forest to make sure it meets the establishment standards. If it does, we’ll pay you the grant for the area established.
A claim form must be completed and sent to MPI by 30 June for any planting in the previous winter, together with a shapefile or map showing the actual planted area. You'll also need to complete a creditor form and provide a bank deposit slip to MPI with your claim.
- Claim for payment form/tax invoice [PDF, 164 KB]
- New creditor request form [PDF, 221 KB]
If you sell or transfer your forest to someone else within 10 years, you must tell MPI and 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]
MPI will monitor your forest to make sure it's up to standard. 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 ETS after 10 years (or after 6 years for grants approved in 2018), refer to ETS information.
Who to contact
If you are registered under the AGS and have questions about a current or previous grant, email forestgrants@mpi.govt.nz
