OIAD-1560
15 May 2025
Craig Innes
[FYI request #30714 email]
Dear Craig
Thank you for your email of 14 April 2025 requesting the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please provide all GIS data relating to lands identified for afforestation on 'Crown-
owned' land in New Zealand’s second emissions reduction plan 2026–30 ISBN 978-0-
473-73006-2. Please also provide any other GIS dataset used in the assessments
identifying existing land cover.
The GIS data relating to
lands identified for afforestation on 'Crown-owned' land in New
Zealand’s second emissions reduction plan is withheld under section 9(2)(j) of the Act to
enable a Minister of the Crown or any department or organisation holding the information to
carry out, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations to enable a Minister of the Crown
or any department or organisation holding the information to carry out, without prejudice or
disadvantage, negotiations.
The high-level methodology used by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to create the
map of indicative land that may be potentially available for afforestation partnerships is
available through the below publicly available links:
MPI used the Crown Land – CroSL layer to identify land administered by Land
Information New Zealand (LINZ) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) and
exclude land managed by other government agencies:
linz.maps.arcgis.com/
home/item.html?id=3868f64109ff45b3ac4b4c514b6f27cf.
MPI used the Department of Conservation (DOC) conservation land to remove national
parks from Crown Land layer:
doc-deptconservation.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/
72354ba9bf7a4706af3fdfe60f86eea1_0/about.
Of the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ)/DOC areas, MPI used the Land Use
Mapping (LUM) layer to narrow these areas down to those comprised of ‘grassland with
woody biomass’ or ‘low producing grassland’:
data.mfe.govt.nz/layer/117733-lucas-nz-
land-use-map-2020-v003/.
Of the areas narrowed down by the LUM layer, the Land Cover Database (LCDB) was
used to further narrow down the identified areas to those comprised of ‘depleted
grassland’, ‘fernland’, ‘flaxland’, ‘gorse and/or broom’, ‘high producing exotic grassland’,
‘low producing grassland’, ‘matagouri or grey scrub’, or ‘mixed exotic shrubland’:
lris.scinfo.org.nz/layer/104400-lcdb-v50-land-cover-database-version-50-mainland-new-
zealand/.
MPI provided the remaining areas to LINZ and DOC for these agencies to identify any
areas that needed to be excluded due to being subject to negotiations with non-
government parties. DOC and LINZ then excluded these additional areas from the
PO Box 10362, Wel ington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
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dataset due to being subject to negotiations with non-government parties or where the
spatial data needed refinement to better describe what may be available.
Please note that while New Zealand’s second emissions reduction plan is the responsibility of
multiple agencies, the GIS data relating to afforestation is the responsibility of the Ministry for
Primary Industries (MPI). If you have any additional questions or requests for information in
this area, we recommend you contact MPI in the first instance.
In accordance with section 9(1) of the OIA, we have also considered countervailing public
interest relating to the release of the information. We are satisfied that in this case, public
interest considerations do not outweigh the withholding reasons outlined above.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of the Ombudsman of my
decision relating to this request, in accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. The relevant
details can be found on their website at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Please note that due to the public interest in our work the Ministry for the Environment
publishes responses to requests for official information on our
OIA responses page shortly
after the response has been sent. If you have any queries about this, please feel free to
contact our Ministerial Services team:
[email address]. Yours sincerely
Cheryl Moir
Manager – Land Use and Removals
Ministry for the Environment | Manatū Mō Te Taiao
PO Box 10362, Wel ington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
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