New Zealand: Forestry
Northland iwi kicks off Billion Trees planting
31 May 2018
The first deal has been done under the Government’s Billion Trees programme.
Government pumps $15m into new forest service
11 May 2018
The Government will set aside an extra $15 million in next week’s Budget to boost the capacity of the new forestry fervice.
The wood world's talking about the Jones boy
22 Mar 2018
The wood industry is in love with its new forestry minister.
Foresters like the look of Billion Trees scheme
26 Feb 2018
Forest owners say they are starting to think the Government is serious about forestry.
OIO cutting rights role wrong move, say foresters
23 Jan 2018
Giving the Overseas Investment Office approval of the sale of forestry cutting rights will jeopardise the Government’s billion trees plan, forest owners say.
Mixed forests may not resist climate change
5 Dec 2017
Researchers have confirmed once again that a good forest is a mixed forest, a natural one, with a diversity of species.
AirNZ eyes paying landowners to plant trees
22 Nov 2017
Air New Zealand wants to set up a private afforestation scheme under the Emissions Trading Scheme to offset some of its greenhouse gas emissions.
TREE TALK: Why we need a better forest philosophy
9 Nov 2017
On November 6, 1217, Henry III’s Charter of the Forest gave ordinary English people back their traditional rights to use royal hunting grounds for livestock grazing and collecting firewood.
Forests can bring 1.5deg Paris target closer
3 Nov 2017
Protecting the world’s forests could achieve a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions cuts needed to meet the 1.5°C Paris target, scientists say.
Government planting target OK, say forest owners
27 Oct 2017
The Government’s plan to plant an extra 50,000 hectares of new forest a year is “optimistic but achievable”, say forest owners.
High land prices key blocker to forest planting
7 Sep 2017
New Zealand won’t get more carbon-sequestering forests until land prices fall.
Greens want high-end wood products industry
5 Sep 2017
The Green Party wants a regional research institute to develop high-value wood products as part of a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Foresters hope next government will vote for trees
31 Aug 2017
Forest owners are hoping next month’s general election will lead to more forestry-friendly government policies – especially if New Zealand First is in the driving seat.
Fund wants to see 5283ha of new forest
10 Aug 2017
The Government’s reinstated Afforestation Grants Scheme will fund 5283 hectares of new forest this year.
Foresters greet environmental standards move
8 Aug 2017
The introduction of a national environmental standard for plantation forestry is vitally needed, forest owners say.
Using forests to manage carbon still a heated debate
4 Aug 2017
The best way of managing trees and forests for climate change and accounting for contributions of forests and forestry activities in carbon budgets remains hotly contested.
PICKY PROBLEM: What makes a carbon forest?
3 Aug 2017
The regeneration of vast areas of carbon-storing native forests is being hampered by “pickiness” over the definition of carbon forests.
Foresters fine, but the ETS has some problems
2 Aug 2017
The forestry sector has behaved rationally in response to the Emissions Trading Scheme - but the scheme itself hasn’t always been rational, a new analysis shows.
ETS changes of little help, say foresters
1 Aug 2017
The Government’s latest changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme will do nothing to get more trees in the ground, the forestry sector says.
It pays off to pay landowners to keep trees
25 Jul 2017
Paying landowners not to cut down trees is cheaper than the carbon-related costs the destruction of the forests would cause, new research shows.
Scientists fear EU rules will hide forest carbon loss
20 Jun 2017
Leading researchers have condemned attempts to change the way carbon from trees will be counted in Europe.
BUDGET: No boost for tree-planting
26 May 2017
The Government’s Budget will not get landowners planting trees on the scale needed to meet New Zealand’s Paris Agreement commitments, forest owners say.
Foresters want carbon price range and ETS promise
11 May 2017
A price range for carbon and a promise that changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme will be backdated would get landowners planting carbon-sequestering trees now, says the Forest Owners’ Association.
One power station deal eats up Govt forest fund
5 May 2017
New Zealand will need an extra 17,000ha of new forest to offset emissions from a new gas-fired power station at Otorohanga, the Green Party says.
Deadline looms for forest planting grants
27 Apr 2017
Applications for the latest round of the Government’s Afforestation Grants Scheme close tomorrow.
Native forests have potential to earn millions
26 Apr 2017
Landowners with 10,000 hectares of native forest could earn $1.5 million a year in carbon credits, a new report says.
Farmers join in as landowners return to planting
29 Mar 2017
Landowners are planting forests again – and farmers looking to offset emissions appear to be among them.
Smaller forests get financial helping hand
15 Mar 2017
Landowners wanting to plant small-to-medium-sized new forests might be able to get some government funding to help them.
Magic tricks in the forest can make carbon emissions vanish
9 Mar 2017
Countries are free to manage their forests as they choose, but reducing them to a tool of light-fingered carbon accounting can leave world deprived of vital carbon sinks.
Forest bonds seen as way for long-term green investment
10 Feb 2017
A world-leading environmental impact bond scheme could channel substantial private investment into planting vast areas of native and exotic forests in New Zealand.
Can we learn to leave our wild forests alone?
27 Jan 2017
Here is how to turn a forest into a carbon-consuming machine that will help to contain global warming. Leave it alone. Let it grow. Do not log it.
Sort out bioenergy, industry tells Government
8 Dec 2016
The ditching of plans for a large geothermally driven wood-processing plant in Northland shows why the Government must sort out New Zealand’s bioenergy plan, the industry says.
California counts 102 million trees dead from drought
24 Nov 2016
An astonishing 102 million trees have died across California over the past six years from drought and disease — including 62 million trees in 2016 alone.
New funding round will see 5.5m trees planted
11 Nov 2016
The latest round of funding from the Government’s Afforestation Grants Scheme will see 5.5 million trees planted next winter.
Hopes rise for solution to forest-split problem
7 Nov 2016
The door is slightly open for the Government to reconsider the contentious pre-1990/post-1989 forestry split under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Government getting serious about forestry
3 Nov 2016
The climate ministers are seriously considering the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s afforestation proposals, it was revealed yesterday.
Is the Government cooking the forestry books?
2 Nov 2016
The Government is being accused of attempting to cook the books by changing the way in which carbon stored in trees is accounted for.
Govt wants to break new ground for tree planting
1 Nov 2016
The Government says it’s working on new ways to get more native and exotic trees in the ground.
$2.5b carbon bill hanging over heads of Treelords iwi
27 Oct 2016
The Maori owners of land under the Southern Hemisphere’s largest plantation forest face a potential carbon liability of nearly $2.5 billion – yet have received credits for just a fraction of the carbon stored in the trees.
Netherlands to increase forests by a quarter
27 Oct 2016
To slash the Netherlands' carbon footprint, the Dutch are going on a tree-planting binge.
NGAI TAHU: We're giving away our forest benefits
26 Oct 2016
Ngai Tahu wants existing native forests included in the Emissions Trading Scheme, saying Maori are being forced to donate to the country the climate benefits of their forests.
Why are millions of trees dying across the US?
20 Sep 2016
A quiet crisis playing out in US forests as huge numbers of trees succumb to drought, disease, insects and wildfire – much of it driven by climate change.
Modified wood aims to save forests from the axe
15 Sep 2016
A hardwood substitute has been developed to effectively end the need to log native forests.
FOREST FIX: Will the government play ball?
2 Sep 2016
Foresters say they’ve got a deal that will get farmers planting trees – but the Government needs to play ball.
Forestry up for Prince of Wales awards
31 Aug 2016
Sustainable forestry in New Zealand is being recognised with two new awards from the Prince of Wales.
Carbon-farming case lawyer under investigation
11 Aug 2016
A lawyer who advised a carbon-farming company that was later prosecuted by the Overseas Investment Office is under investigation over the affair.
Europe aims to close loophole on wood energy
10 Aug 2016
European officials are moving to close a loophole that promotes the burning of wood for electricity by an industry that’s felling American trees, and a new report they commissioned has laid bare the urgent need for reform.
Industry slams failure of free-market forestry
1 Aug 2016
New Zealand’s experiment with free-market forestry has left it without the forests needed to combat climate change and supply the domestic market with wood, the industry says.
How forestry can make as much money as dairying
25 Jul 2016
Details of a study showing that forestry can be as profitable as dairying have been made public.
AGS forests will bank million tonnes of carbon
25 Jul 2016
Forests planted under the revived Afforestation Grant Scheme this year are expected to store 1.3 million tonnes of carbon.
Pacific climate response in question as NZ finance remains unclear
19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | With New Zealand's $1.3 billion international climate finance commitment set to end with no clarity on what follows, the Auditor-General says oversight of that funding remains patchy and long-term outcomes are unclear.
NZ hydrogen regulation to catch up with the world
18 Dec 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | The government has announced a regulatory reset for New Zealand’s emerging clean tech hydrogen sector.
State-owned farmer drives profit growth with emissions reductions
19 Dec 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Government-owned Landcorp, trading as Pāmu, is one-third of the way to meeting its 2031 emissions reduction targets, with five years left to run to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30.3% against 2021 emissions.
Transport dominates NZ’s rising consumer emissions
10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Transport pollution was the biggest contributor to an increase in New Zealand’s consumption-based emissions in 2023, with emissions from household travel up 12%, and consumption-based emissions totalling 58.3 million tonnes – up 1.6% from the previous year.
NZ could become ‘dumping ground’ for dirty vehicles: Commissioner
16 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | Simon Upton, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, has warned the Government that its changes to the clean car standard could turn the country into a dumping ground for high emitting cars, making future emissions budgets harder to achieve.
Investors must support positive climate-tech
28 Nov 2025
OPINION: We need better leadership than the current ‘climate opportunism’ that is rife in the Beehive, and we need to back a marketplace that will make it happen, writes Rob Campbell.
