ghg-inventory-1990-2013

Pre-1990 natural forest deforestation has been further sub-classified according to species
composition, to identify the proportion of deforestation that was tall forest as opposed
to younger or immature natural forest (regenerating shrubland that has the potential to
meet the forest definition) areas (table 11.3.1). This has been estimated using the
Land Cover Database 4 (LCDB4), which enables more accurate reporting of the
dominant natural forest species within the deforested area, resulting in more
accurate emission factors. For further information on the LCDB4 layer, refer to:
www.nlrc.org.nz/resources/datasets/lcdb3.
Table 11.3.1
Pre-1990 natural forest subclassification
New Zealand’s areas of pre-1990 natural forest deforestation estimated by
sub-classification from 2008 to 2013
Area of natural forest deforestation (ha)
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total
Regenerating shrubland 738 1,863 917 422 732 930 5,603
Tall forest 215 942 615 474 347 524 3,116
Total 953 2,805 1,533 896 1,079 1,453 8,719
Note:
Columns may not total due to rounding.
The carbon densities for pre-1990 natural forest and post-1989 planted forest have been
updated following scheduled re-measurement and/or re-modelling of these forests as
described in section 6.4.2.
Following deforestation, carbon on the new land use then accumulates at rates given in
table 6.1.4.
Harvested wood products (CRF 4(KP-I)C)
New Zealand has a large planted forest estate that provides the majority of wood products
consumed domestically and exported in either product or raw material form. A
description of the forest estate and New Zealand wood use is provided in section 6.10.
New Zealand has developed a Tier 3 method to report harvested wood products under the
Kyoto Protocol. New Zealand uses the default Tier 2 methodology, as described in the
guidance (KP Supplement, IPCC, 2014a), and uses some country-specific activity data
and parameters where available. IPCC default half-lives and some conversion factors are
used. Country-specific conversion factors are used for sawnwood and veneer sheets.
Harvested wood products production, import and export data from 1990 to 2013 were
sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization Statistics database (FAOSTAT).
These data are provided to the Food and Agriculture Organization by the Ministry for
Primary Industries. The basic data are the same as that used for Convention reporting
except the time-series begins in 1990 for afforestation and reforestation and 2013 for
forest management. Also, the solid wood Convention category is disaggregated into
sawnwood and panels for Kyoto Protocol reporting. Errors within the data were
corrected, missing data were added and data that were not updated from the previous
estimates were corrected. The data were corrected using data directly from the Ministry
for Primary Industries.
In 2013, a large proportion (over 50 per cent) of New Zealand’s harvest was exported as
raw materials in the form of logs or wood chips. The FAOSTAT database provides data
on the export quantity of raw materials but no information currently exists on the
conversion of these materials to products and their expected half-lives. Therefore,
exported raw materials are currently excluded from New Zealand’s Kyoto Protocol
harvested wood products pool estimates and they are treated as an instantaneous
emission. Work is currently under way to assess the end-use of New Zealand raw
materials in export markets.
New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2013 343