This report identifies the legal, time and financial barriers to native afforestation, as well as identifying past and current opportunities and future recommendations to incentivise native afforestation.

Default half-life values for the end-uses of harvested wood products is provided by the IPCC and have been used in the New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Inventory. However, these values do not provide accurate carbon stock and stock changes in harvested wood products in New Zealand. This report investigates and recommends country-specific half-life values for harvested wood product end-uses in New Zealand.

This report provides a survey on the afforestation intentions for exotic and indigenous forest, and deforestation intentions for planted forest up until 2030.

This report reviews the suitability of the FracLEACH parameter used to estimate the proportion of nitrogen (N) applied to agricultural land that is lost via leaching and runoff of N. The current inventory methodology employs a uniform FracLEACH of 0.07 of key N inputs, which is used for estimating a proportion of the indirect nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture.

The NZ Greenhouse Gas Inventory assumes that limestone products have 100% purity, however the purity varies depending on which sedimentary period the limestone was deposited in. This report analyses a range of historic literature, data and new samples to provide an estimate of the actual purity of limestone and dolomite applied to agricultural soils.

This report examines the potential for increasing net removals by pre-1990 forests towards NZ’s NDC target in terms of new practices, their impacts on net removals, their applicability to different forest types and the extent of those forests, and the opportunity to incentivise these management changes.

The report provides estimates of the financial impact on forest growers with pre-1990 forests if they were able to gain carbon recognition for changing forestry practice; specifically if they, changed forest management, rotation length, final crop stocking, growth rate, or converted from a production forest to a permanent forest

International forestry accounting rules under the Paris Agreement allow accounting for carbon sequestration above business-as-usual reference levels in pre-1990 forest that can be shown to result from forest management. This report assesses: management options that may promote carbon sequestration in pre-1990 natural forests relative to baseline levels, conditions where increased sequestration is likely to be observed, the potential magnitude of sequestration responses, and the potential uptake by landowners.

This report evaluates the European Forest Reference Level (FRL) approach proposed for EU member States, as the potential basis for developing New Zealand’s Forest Reference Level. Alternatives to this approach for NZ are also discussed that align with NZ’s national carbon inventory, available data, national circumstances, and forest management practices.

Evaluation of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in dis-incentivising deforestation. Deforestation levels with and without the ES and at various carbon prices.

The aims of this project were to (a) collate and analyse available pasture quality data to determine whether the data are statistically robust enough to provide nationally representative values for the key livestock classes on a monthly basis, (b) statistically derive the number of samples required to represent the seasonal and spatial variations of metabolisable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) in each region; and (c) make clear recommendations for the establishment of a national pasture sampling programme.

A literature review was undertaken to understand the impact of grazing management, in particular, grazing interval, on pasture quality and the interactions with pasture species, season, land slope and other drivers of pasture quality in a New Zealand context.

This report documents the methodology and assumptions currently used to estimate animal live weight (and live weight gain) for beef and dairy cattle, deer, and sheep in the Agricultural Inventory Model (AIM), the model used to estimate New Zealand's agricultural GHG emissions.

A database of nitrogen (N) measurements created from studies of cattle (beef and dairy), sheep and deer where intakes and partition of N have been collated. The data assesses the current equation used in the New Zealand greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory model to estimate the partitioning of excreta N into urine and faeces (dung).

The primary purpose of this project is the development of the framework suitable for future use by the Ministry and its partners. The project builds on previous work that quantified the use of supplementary feed usage in the New Zealand (NZ) sheep industry. The models used in the initial report have been further extended to include beef, dairy grazing and finishing of cattle exiting the dairy system.

This project aims to update earlier methodology to account for multiple off-paddock structures that collect animal excreta and the multiple manure management systems, by i) reviewing data on the use of these structures and systems, and ii) developing an accounting tool to estimate the fate of dairy cow excreta.

The objective of this project is to determine the post-harvest intentions of owners of post-1989 forests that are nearing harvest maturity.

The report presents updated algorithms for suitable use in the national inventory that suggest improved predictions and a better fit of the data obtained on enteric methane emissions from sheep.

Estimating and examining he enteric CH4 emissions from sheep - using an IPCC Tier 2/3 approach which comprises detailed population, performance, feed characterisation, and the estimation of dry matter intake (DMI) for each category of animal.

The report presents recommendations for country-specific EF1 values for farm dairy effluent (FDE) and urea fertiliser. These recommendations are based on research conducted across New Zealand to quantify EF1 (% of applied N lost as N2O-N) under contrasting soil and climatic conditions.

This project has quantified historical supplemental feed demand, and evaluated the impact of potential future productivity gains on supplemental feed usage within the New Zealand dry-stock farming industry.

The objective of this review was to determine whether additional summer field trials are required in order to improve the accuracy of emission estimates in New Zealand’s national nitrous oxide (N2O) inventory

This report assesses the likely impact that the inclusion of irrigation would have on New Zealand's greenhouse gas inventory, and analyse the feasibility of incorporating irrigation into the inventory, considering both activity data and changes to methodology, and emission factors for nitrous oxide.

This project aimed to identify key current, emerging or next generation Greenhouse Gas (GHG) management options for agriculture; assess their feasibility on farm and likelihood of adoption; and to assess the feasibility of incorporation into MPI's Agricultural GHG Inventory model

This report provides a summary of the trends in non-pasture feed use on New Zealand dairy farms from 1990-91 to 2014-15 as well as future projections of feed demand out to 2030-31, including the breakdown between pasture, crops grown, harvested supplementary feed and imported supplementary feed

The report entails a review of material flows and end-uses of harvested wood products produced from New Zealand log exports, focusing on New Zealand's three major markets: China, South Korea, and India.

The establishment of Permanent Sample Plots [PSP] on marginal land at two study sites. The contrasting landforms assists in understanding the effects of planting density, survival rates and landform.

The aim of this study was to develop a framework for estimating N2O emissions from N fertiliser use on pasture on different slope classes that would eventually be incorporated into the Agriculture Inventory Model and help to ensure that New Zealand’s emissions estimates are as accurate as possible.

Research set out to determine the contribution of national spatial datasets could make on two issues affecting the ability to forecast future wood availability from planted forests and the size of the planted forests estate: 1) The likelihood that individual forest blocks would be harvested; and 2) The probability that forest blocks would be deforested.