EBEX21® Newsletter Issue 15, February 2010

In this issue:

• Kyoto-compliant credits are being sold through EBEX™
  
• EBEX has a new process to help landowners
  
• EBEX has updated its website
  
• Call for new sites
  
• Policy update        

Kyoto-compliant credits are being sold through EBEX

We have four landowners going through our new process (see below). At present their Permanent Forest Sink Initiative (PFSI) applications are with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). We anticipate sale of credits by the end of March 2010. This will be a total of 1700 ha or 5100 credits (using the MAF default sequestration rate for indigenous forests of 3 tonnes CO2e per hectare per year).

EBEX has a new process to help landowners

For those that don’t know, EBEX is a service that simplifies the complex issue of carbon farming. We work with landowners to help create carbon credits with the highest levels of credibility that we then sell on the landowners' behalf. We previously sold voluntary credits on the ‘grey market’, but now the Government has provided an opportunity to create Kyoto-compliant credits under the PFSI. EBEX is taking advantage of this opportunity, and as a consequence we have had to change the service we provide to fit with the new regulations.

The main changes from a landowner perspective are:

• You can now sell Kyoto-compliant credits through EBEX rather than voluntary ‘grey market’ credits. Compliant credits have higher monetary value.
• We provide an office-based preliminary site assessment as a planning document for a fixed fee. This is based on information you provide, and the expert knowledge and image analysis skills of EBEX staff, to make an assessment of your site for its likely eligibility and offset potential. From the Certificate of Title numbers you provide, we define the cadastral boundaries of your property and estimate what area of the land matches eligible ‘forest’ definitions. You will receive a report including an image of the area of your land estimated as eligible, plus an estimate of the total number of hectares that you could gain credits on under the PFSI (see Fig. 1 below).
• If proceeding to sell credits through EBEX you will need to sign two contracts with us. One covers the services we provide and the other covers the sale and purchase of your credits.
• You will need a PFSI covenant on your land.
• At present there is no plot-based measurement option for reverting indigenous shrubland (but we anticipate this to change in the future), and
• The fee structure has changed.

You can find full details of the service we provide and information about carbon farming on our updated website: www.ebex21.co.nz

Figure 1. An example of a preliminary assessment image, showing the property boundary and the estimated forest sink area (the area estimated to be eligible for entry into the PFSI).

EBEX has updated its website

In line with our changes to services and processes we have updated our website. The look and information has changed, but the address is still the same: www.ebex21.co.nz

The highlights are:

• The criteria for eligibility are transparent
• The steps from registration through to selling credits are easy to follow
• The frequently asked questions (FAQ) are a useful guide
• Costs and possible returns are found on the FAQ page, and
• Navigation through the site is intuitive

Call for new sites

Over the years many landowners have contacted EBEX and expressed their intention to allow some of their land to regenerate into native forest in perpetuity and gain some income from it by selling carbon credits. The time has come to review your site and see if EBEX may work for you. If you are interested and believe your land is eligible, or if you are already registered and wish to proceed with an estimate of how much of your land is eligible, please contact us (see our website for eligibility criteria, or if you don’t have internet access phone us). Please leave a message on our answer machine or email us and we will contact you within a few days (see contact details below).

Policy update 

The only recent policy changes have been to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It is important to note that EBEX does not currently use the ETS. We only use the PFSI to gain compliant credits. EBEX is focussing on the PFSI scheme as we believe this will provide better returns to landowners. Credits sold through EBEX need to meet stringent international requirements – this gives them integrity and saleability. The PFSI allows us to do this more easily than the ETS. The PFSI requires a covenant to ensure that the carbon is permanently removed from the atmosphere. The type of credits generated under the PFSI are Assigned Amount Units or AAUs, which are Kyoto-compliant and therefore recognised internationally. Therefore, none of the recent policy announcements affect EBEX directly.

On 8 December 2009 the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading Scheme) Amendment Act came into law and it amends the previous legislation. The Amendment Act includes a number of important changes relevant to the forestry sector. For more information on the changes go to Changes to the NZ ETS for Forestry.

MAF are currently updating their guides and corresponding information in line with the changes and these will shortly be available on the MAF website. www.maf.govt.nz/sustainable-forestry/

Changes to other sectors will be available on the Ministry for the Environment website www.mfe.govt.nz