18 October 2011: The UNFCCC Secretariat has published the report (FCCC/TAR/2011/NZL) of the technical assessment of the forest management reference level (FRML) of New Zealand submitted in 2011. The Expert Review Team (ERT) has found New Zealand’s FRML submission and supporting material informative and transparent.

In the report, the ERT notes that New Zealand’s FMRL does not disaggregate gains and losses for biomass, unlike in its greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory submissions. It underlines that New Zealand explains that the Forestry Oriented Linear Programming Interpreter (FOLPI) model is not able to provide this data. The ERT considers that this is a weakness in the FMRL and encourages New Zealand to make efforts to disaggregate gains and losses. The ERT recommends that New Zealand provides further information on how forest owners will be able to move from historic/current harvesting practice to the longer rotation length projected in the FOLPI model. [Publication: Report of the Technical Assessment of the Forest Management Reference Level Submission of New Zealand Submitted in 2011]