Published by
Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement / United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Year
2017

Good Practice: Monitoring GHG emission reductions from forested land in New Zealand's ETS System

New Zealand was the first country to include the agriculture and forestry sectors in an emission Trading Scheme (NZ ETS). Foresters can sell ‘NZ Emission Units’ (NZUs), worth 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent, to emitters but must repay the NZUs to the government if the forest is cut down. To monitor such changes in forested land participating in the ETS, the NZ Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), now the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), developed a specialised mapping tool; Climate Change Information System (CCIS). Data is monitored and verified via satellite and photographic imagery so that no anomalies are presented.