Under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), forest owners may have
obligations to account for Emissions Trading Units (ETUs) if they
deforest their land or change land uses. Owner's obligations
vary depending on the age of the forest with the key date being 31
December 1989.
These obligations can extend to natural disaster events which
cause damage to forests. The storms that occurred throughout
Canterbury and North Otago in the winter/spring of 2013 caused
wide-spread damage to a number of forestry plantations and
wood-lots. Early estimates indicate that at least 2,000 ha of
planted forest were damaged in Canterbury alone.
The effect of this damage is not limited to the loss of timber
alone with forest owners also needing to consider whether they have
any obligations to account for potential liabilities under the ETS.
The extent of these liabilities will depend on when the forests
were planted (before or after 31 December 1989) and whether owners
have entered into
