EBEX21®: what is involved?

Below is a step-by-step guide from initial contact to selling your credits. We work closely with you throughout each step to simplify the complexities of carbon farming.

The steps:

1. If it appears your land could be suitable for EBEX™ registration, we will ask you to fill out a site template form to give us some idea of what your site looks like and to give us a better indication of its suitability. The template includes questions about the characteristics of the site and its vegetation history. It also includes information that is required for entering the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative (PFSI).

2. If you have access to an aerial photograph (ortho-corrected is preferable) from as near to 1990 as possible, or something similar, this can be indicated on the site template form.

3. Once we have received your completed site template form, we will contact you to advise whether we think your land is eligible or not.

4. If you wish to proceed to step 5 you will need to send (email, fax or post) us a photo or map of your land with areas outlined that you would like to be included in the assessment. This is the time to send us any photographs you have from around 1990. Also include any other relevant information you think might help with the assessment such as copies of ecological or botanical surveys.

5. For a fee of $750 + GST1, our scientific officers will use the above information to make a preliminary assessment of your site for its likely eligibility and offset potential, and details of your site will be added to the EBEX database. From the Certificate of Title numbers you have provided in the template, we will define the cadastral boundaries of your property. This assessment will include a map/image (see example) of your land and the estimated forest area that is eligible for the PFSI. The area will be refined on-site at a later stage if you wish to continue with the next steps. We will also give you an indication of whether your land will be high or low on our priority list. We use objective criteria to assess this, including the size of the land area and the likely speed of achieving tall forest. This does not mean that if your ranking is low the land will not be used by EBEX; it just means that it might take longer for us to sign you up.

6. If after receiving your preliminary assessment you wish to proceed, we will assist you with PFSI registration, for which MAF charges $500 + GST. We will also prepare two contracts – one confirming the conditions of sale and purchase of Kyoto-compliant credits (called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs)), and the other confirming the services we will perform for you and the payment we expect for these services ($2,000 + GST 2). These services include preparation of the paperwork and imagery for entry into the PFSI, a site visit to confirm the exact area of your land to be included, estimation of the carbon stock on your land using the PFSI default sequestration rate, and maintenance of all data and paperwork relating to the carbon stocks. If MAF brings in a measurement option for PFSI landowners, you will be required to have a measurement if your land is above a certain size-threshold. There would be a separate charge for this in the future.

The main conditions of the Sale and Purchase Agreement are:

1. That the forest is entered into the PFSI,

2. You enter into the Services Agreement with us, and

3. That we have the first right of refusal on the AAUs available in each calendar year.

The main conditions of the Service Agreement are:

1. That you provide site data to enable Landcare Research to produce a map of the land showing the proposed areas for the forest sink.
   

2. That you allow Landcare Research reasonable access to the land for purposes associated with the agreement, and pay Landcare Research a fixed fee to visit the site for the purposes of auditing it for eligibility as a CO2 sink.
   

3. That you take all practicable steps to ensure that the CO2 sink is positively managed so as to restore and preserve the biodiversity values of the land and to restore indigenous forest to maximise CO2 sequestration.
   

4. That Landcare Research will measure the site according to PFSI stipulations if, or when, a measurement methodology becomes available from MAF.

7. With your input, registration into the PFSI will be initiated to create AAUs. As part of this process you will need to set up an account with the New Zealand Emission Unit Register (NZEUR) and sign up to the PFSI covenant.

Note: You will have to submit two copies of your PFSI covenant to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). The charge for this is $44.45 + GST to LINZ.

8. When entry into the PFSI is completed, we will indicate to you when you will need to apply to MAF to take possession of the AAUs owing to you for a given calendar year. The cost for each application is $88.89 + GST to MAF. (MAF will only issue AAUs for past calendar years from 2008 onwards.)

9. We will sell the credits on your behalf for a small commission.

10. Demand for quality AAUs like those coming from the EBEX Programme is high and is likely to remain so for many years to come. We expect to be able to sell your credits on your behalf in future, and will contact you every year to confirm this and to discuss the price. If, for any reason, we are not able to take them, you are free to sell that year’s credits elsewhere but not for a lower price than we offered.

11. In the future, MAF may allow a measurement option instead of just using a default value of 3 tonnes CO2e per hectare per year for native forests. If this is the case, we will require landowners contracted to us with land above a certain size threshold to have a measurement completed on their land. The cost of this is usually $7,000 to $10,000. This will benefit most landowners, as the default value of 3 tonnes CO2e per hectare per year is a conservative value, and even a small increase in sequestration rate will more than offset the cost of the measurement.

1 Fee for properties up to 1,000 ha in area.  The price for properties larger than this will vary on a case-by-case basis but will be agreed with landowners before proceeding.

2 This fee may vary for larger properties greater than 1,000 ha.

• Read more about carbon sequestration
• Examples of costs and returns are available on our FAQ page.

Guidelines for management

There are some key actions that will help you manage the natural regeneration of pasture through shrubland to native forest.

Key Actions:

• Prevent fires
• Exclude domestic stock by fencing
• Retain gorse and broom as a nurse crop
• Control animal pests such as rabbits, goats etc.
• Control other weeds, particularly round edges or in open patches
• Undertake restoration plantings if required.

Source: Davis M, Meurk C 2001. Protecting and restoring our natural heritage – a practical guide. Published by the Department of Conservation.