New Zealand Legislation: Regulations
Regulations are laws made under Acts
The following rules must be used when applying the tables in Schedule 6 for the purposes of calculating carbon stock under regulation 21:
(a) the age of a tree is the number of years from the year of planting or regeneration of the tree, no matter when in the relevant year the tree was planted or regenerated, to (as the case may be)—
(i) the year of commencement of the emissions return period; or
(ii) the year of clearing of the tree, no matter when in that year the tree was cleared; or
(iii) the year in which the end of the emissions return period falls, unless the return ends on 31 December, in which case the age is to be calculated as at 1 January of the following year:
A tree is planted at any time during 1995. An emissions return is submitted for the period 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2010. For the purposes of applying the tables in Schedule 6, the tree was 13 years old (2008 – 1995) at the start of the emissions return period and 16 years old (2011 – 1995) at the end of the period.
(b) if a tree regenerates on land on which a forest species was cleared immediately prior to the regeneration, the tree is to be treated for the purposes of paragraph (a) as having regenerated in the year following the year in which the forest species was cleared:
An area of post-1989 forest land contains regenerating kanuka. The kanuka was last felled in 2008. For the purposes of determining the age of the trees under paragraph (a), the current kanuka is treated as having regenerated in 2009.
(c) the forest type of a hectare of forest land is—
(i) Pinus radiata if the predominant forest species on the land is Pinus radiata; or
(ii) Douglas fir if the predominant forest species on the land is Douglas fir; or
(iii) exotic softwoods if the predominant forest species on the land is an exotic softwood; or
(iv) exotic hardwoods if the predominant forest species on the land is an exotic hardwood; or
(v) indigenous forest if the predominant forest species on the land is indigenous:
(d) the predominant forest species for the purposes of paragraph (c) is the forest species that constitutes the largest volume of timber:
A hectare of post-1989 forest land contains intermingled indigenous forest species and exotic softwoods (Pinus contorta). The forest species with the largest volume of timber is an indigenous forest species. The forest type for the purpose of applying the tables in Schedule 6 is indigenous forest.
(e) if the age of a tree calculated under paragraph (a) is older than the last age on the table for that forest type, the age for that tree is the last age on the table:
Exotic hardwoods in an area of post-1989 forest land are calculated to be 27 years old. The entry for 25-year-old trees (the last age on table 2 of Schedule 6) is to be used.
(f) if a hectare of forest land contains trees of mixed ages, the weighted average age of the trees of the forest type is to be taken as the age of the trees:
A participant has a hectare of intermingled Pinus radiata of which 70% are 30 years old and 30% are 15 years old. The age of those trees is their weighted average age of 25.5 years ((30 years x 0.7) + (15 years x 0.3) = 25.5 years).
(g) if, under paragraph (f),—
(i) the age of the trees is not a whole number, the age must be rounded to the nearest whole number:
(ii) the age of the trees includes 0.5 of a year, the number must be rounded up to the nearest whole number:
(h) if trees of an exotic forest species have been cleared but the land has not been deforested, the residual wood from above ground residual wood and below ground roots from the cleared trees is to be treated as decaying for a period of 10 years from the year of clearing.