Maroc - TIMBERBIZ.COM.AU - A La Une - 19/Aug 00:54

Interpine measuring forest carbon in New Zealand

The New Zealand Interpine team is collecting data for the country’s 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). Source: Timberbiz 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. Interpine’s involvement in the LUCAS project dates back as far as 2004, now 20 years on the company is 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 such as 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 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 four kilometre 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. There are 130-150 sites selected for measurement each year and the plots are re-measured over a five-yearly rotation.