This page contains information about the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme – Forestry) Amendment Bill.
Consultation period: 26 June to 7 July 2025
Access the pre-written submission template here
Parliament’s Environment Committee is consulting on legislation that will place limits on whole-farm conversions to forestry.
More information on Parliament’s website here.
Why this is important
The wholesale conversion of sheep and beef farmland to carbon farming – incentivised by policy settings – is having a devastating effect on our sector (including on rural communities, schools and businesses, and on things like pest control – and ultimately on New Zealand’s economy).
We’ve been calling for action on whole-farm sales to carbon farming since 2019 – for more information see this page on our website.
We therefore welcome any measures to address this issue – but it’s important we get it right.
B+LNZ’s views
While we support the intent of the legislation, we’re seeking important changes. We have two major areas of concern about the legislation:
- The ‘temporary exemptions’ allowing forestry entities to enter farmland into the ETS that was converted after the changes were announced on 4 December 2024 are too flexible and need to be tightened.
When the limits were announced in December 2024, the Government said the new rules would apply from 4 December 2024, unless there was a “clear” intent for conversion before that date, and that any exemptions would be for “rare” instances.
The current text of the legislation, however, says “any” of a number of listed activities would be eligible on their own, and two items on the list (ordering seedlings and third-party assessments) should not be sufficient as they do not constitute enough proof of intent.
B+LNZ is hearing from many farmers who know of farms that have been sold to entities this year intending to take advantage of the current loose rules.
- The restrictions on land classes relating to whole farm conversions that can be entered into the ETS do not go far enough.
We support the integration of trees within farms – the legislation currently allows for up to 25 percent of a farm to be converted to forestry for entry into the ETS – that allows for a balance between environment objectives with productivity. Our concern has instead always been with whole-farm sales.
We’re concerned the restrictions in the legislation, especially the quota on land class 6 (15,000 hectares per year), will not sufficiently restrict the volume of whole farm sales for conversion. We’ve therefore strengthened our position and are calling for the moratorium on whole-farm conversions being entered into the ETS to be extended to all land classes, or at least land class 6.
However we support the continuation of the within-farm 25 percent exemption to apply to all land classes.
What B+LNZ is doing
We’re providing a submission and will speak at the Select Committee.
We’ve provided a pre-written submission template for farmers to use for their own submissions – with the very short timeframe provided, the louder the voice, the more likely we are to get changes.