A Mataura forestry consultant is worried farmers will miss out on their chance to register for "potentially lucrative" carbon credits.
Time was running out for owners of forest and forest land to either opt out of, or receive compensation for, forestry blocks before they were locked down as part of New Zealand's carbon reserve, Forest Tech Services consultant Paul Cox said.
Anecdotally, it seemed farmers and owners of small forestry blocks had "no idea" of the change that was looming, Mr Cox said in a statement.
Owners of native forests had long faced restrictions on milling.
Now, man-made forests of exotic trees such as willows, eucalypts, macrocarpa and pine, as well as native trees in forested plantations of more than 1ha, will also face restrictions.
In many cases, owners of forestry land would lose the choice of future land use. If forests planted before 1990 were milled, either they must be replanted, or the landowner must pay a significant deforestation tax, Mr Cox said.
"That's potentially a huge cost for forestry land owners - the carbon tax could end up costing more than the value of the trees."
Owners of those forest blocks were entitled to free New Zealand Units (NZU carbon credits), which were tradeable for real money, but only if they applied by November 30.
With the September deadline for compensation just six weeks away, it was important people acted quickly, he said.
In Otago and Southland so far, owners of 84,621ha of pre-1990 forest had registered for compensation; owners of 1308ha had sought exemption for pre-1990 forest land less than 50ha; owners of 55,492ha of post-1989 forest land - who can voluntarily enter the emissions trading scheme - had registered, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry showed.
Maf had tried to identify and contact pre-1990 forest land owners to advise them of the deadline for applications, a spokesman said yesterday.
Landowners wanting to talk about applying for credits or an exemption should call 0800 CLIMATE (254 628).
