National Environmental Standards for Forestry

Resource consents

On this page:

Summary of 4 June amendments •
Notify a proposed activity •
What are the regulations?

Under the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) some permitted forestry activities require notification to Waikato Regional Council within 10 days of starting.

The National Environmental Standards (NES) for Plantation Forestry came into effect on 1 May 2018. They were renamed the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) following an amendment in November 2023.

The NES provide nationally consistent regulations to manage the environmental effects of forestry. They appy to 1 hectare or more of continuous forest tree species deliberately planted for commercial harvest, and all associated forestry activities.

A further amendment to the NES-CF came into effect on 4 June 2026. Of note the amendment replaces the requirement to manage residual slash on Orange and Red ESC-zoned land against quantifiable limits, with a need to undertake a slash mobilisation risk assessment (SMRA).

Summary of 4 June amendments

Several changes have been made to the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF), including updates to information requirements.

The most significant change is to Regulation 69(5)-(7) that related to volumetric limits for slash on Orange and Red Zone land. There is now a requirement to undertake a slash mobilisation risk assessment (SMRA) using the Landcare mapping tool.

The amendments also affect requirements for afforestation and replanting management plans.

What you need to do

Continue sending any notifications to us (see the link on this page, below). This ensures you are meeting the new regulations.

Read more about the amendments and requirements

Notify us of a proposed forestry activity

Submit a notification for a proposed activity. You need to do this within 10 days of starting the activity.

Official NES‑CF regulations (MfE website)

Read full details of the NES‑CF regulations from the Ministry for the Environment.

NES for Commercial Forestry (MPI website)

Read information from Ministry for Primary Industries on the regulations and related risk assessment tools.

Commercial Plantation Forestry Compliance Strategy

Read Waikato Regional Council’s strategy for forestry operation compliance and environmental management. (PDF, 2.3 MB)

Erosion and sediment control

Learn about the impacts of erosion and our requirements for sediment control.

What are the regulations?

The NES-CF contains rules and compliance conditions for eight forestry activities:

Afforestation.
Pruning and thinning to waste.
Earthworks.
River crossings.
Forest quarrying.
Harvesting.
Mechanical land preparation.
Replanting.

Waikato Regional Council implements the NES-CF regulations for activities in our region. The forestry activities above are provided for as either permitted (not requiring authorisation), controlled or restricted discretionary (requiring authorisation).

Some permitted forestry activities require notification to us within 10 days of starting an activity.

There are three risk assessment tools that form part of the regulations:
Activities not covered by the NES-CF regulations will continue to be managed by regional or territorial authority plans. In the Waikato region, this includes the Waikato Regional Plan and the Regional Coastal Plan.

You can learn more about what is in and out of scope on the MfE website (see the link above).
There are criteria identified in Regulation 6 of the NES-CF to retain more stringent rules and to make new rules more stringent. These include giving effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement, providing for outstanding natural features and landscapes and significant natural areas, and recognising and managing unique and sensitive environments such as geothermal or karst landscapes.

Where regional rules are retained under Regulation 6, a Schedule 1 consultative process is not to be undertaken. However, where new rules are proposed to be more stringent, these have to go through the Schedule 1 consultative process.

There is one regional rule which has been retained under Regulation 6 – Discretionary Activity Rule 7.6.6.3 Activities in the Vicinity of a Significant Geothermal Feature.
We took a two phase approach in our implementation of the NES-PF.

Phase 1

The first phase was the identification of all amendments that needed to be made, which included rules to be retained under Regulation 6. Section 44A of the Resource Management Act 1991 directs councils to make amendments to RMA plans which can be made without using the Schedule 1 process. This is why there has been no formal notification or consultation processes.

Phase 2

The second phase is to identify, through evidence and monitoring, where new rules to be more stringent will be needed under Regulation 6. If there is justification for new, more stringent rules, this will be undertaken as part of the Waikato Regional Plan review, and will subsequently go through Schedule 1 (formal notification and consultation) of that process.
Through the review and alignment process it has been determined that there are no consequential amendments required to the Regional Policy Statement. However, should new rules be proposed under Regulation 6, amendments to the Regional Policy Statement may be required as part of the Waikato Regional Plan review process.

We have not identified any conflict between the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River and the NES-CF. However, should conflicts arise, the Vision and Strategy prevails.

National Environmental Standards (NES) for Forestry