Interpine team are proud to be underway again this winter collecting data for our national plantated forest inventory for NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory. This being part of the Land Use and Carbon Analysis System (LUCAS) which is by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE). Interpine maintains a suite of software systems for the LUCAS project including the data warehouse, data collection field software, and calculation and reporting systems for the project. Our involvement in the LUCAS project dates back as far as 2004. 20 years on we are proud to be a key supplier for the project. The LUCAS system is responsible for tracking the changes in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions and removals from vegetation and soils under a variety of land uses (eg, from forests, crops and pasture). This is reported annually in New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
The inventory data are also used in other environmental reports, and in providing estimates for a variety of uses including future greenhouse gas emissions, trends in land-use change and biodiversity. The LUCAS planted forest inventory began in 2007 and the data are used to meet our domestic and international reporting obligations under the Kyoto Protocol currently and under the Paris Agreement in the future. The data are also used by the Forest Growers Levy Trust and for other industry good forest research purposes.
LUCAS uses a national grid-based network of permanent plots to provide unbiased estimates of carbon stored in planted
forests. Sample points are located on a 4 km grid across the country. A sample point is deemed to be part of the
permanent plot network if any part of the plot falls within an area of planted forest, this can include both temporarily and
permanently unstocked areas. 130-150 sites are selected for measurement each year and the plots are re-measured over a five-yearly rotation.
Find out more on how we measure forest and soil carbon:
- http://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/state-of-our-atmosphere-and-climate/measuring-greenhouse-gasemissions/measuring
- http://www.mfe.govt.nz/climate-change/state-of-our-atmosphere-and-climate/measuring-greenhouse-gasemissions/measuring-soil
Have a look at the latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory:
Are you a landowner for one of the survey sites?