Apply for a concession for voluntary nature and carbon market activities
Apply for a concession to carry out activities on public conservation land for nature restoration projects funded through voluntary nature and carbon markets.

Why you need a concession

A concession provides the property right to use public conservation land to generate and sell voluntary nature and/or carbon credits. This commercial activity triggers the need for a concession under the Conservation Act. A concession also allows activities such as access, planting, trapping, and monitoring on public conservation land.

You may already have an agreement with DOC to undertake parts of the activity such as trapping lines or restoration projects. These may be able to be kept on a case-by-case basis depending on the specific proposal.

A concession does not grant any VNCM credits for projects on conservation land. You will need to gain endorsement from your chosen VNCM scheme provider to generate and sell credits.  

Pre-application advice

Applying for a concession for the first time can be a little tricky. To ensure your application goes smoothly we offer one hour of free pre-application advice.

We’ll help you to:

  • Understand the concession you will need to apply for.
  • Navigate our statutory planning documents, so you can consider whether the activity you wish to undertake is consistent with them.
  • Understand DOC’s responsibility to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi , which requires consultation with Treaty Partners on most applications. If you wish, DOC can help you contact the local iwi, hapū , and whānau to assess whether your proposed activity will have any cultural effects. Often this consultation can enhance the activity you are considering.

Pre-application advice

Preparing your concession application

Before you apply for a concession, you will need to be working towards accreditation with an independent certification scheme. Independent certification schemes issue the credits and operate the market for buying and selling credits. Projects should use a government endorsed scheme. Accreditation with a scheme is required separately to a concession but the scheme provides information required for making a concession application. For further information on certification schemes see voluntary nature and carbon market projects on public conservation land.

You will need to provide details in your application form on:

  • the scheme you are seeking accreditation under
  • proposed activities (eg planting, trapping, monitoring) and effects of those activities
  • what location and how you intend on accessing the site (use our map)
  • term length including if/why exceptional circumstances apply
  • consistency with statutory planning documents.

Find out more about the process and how to prepare your application.

How to identify public conservation land areas

  1. Open DOC map: Discover the Outdoors.
  2. Click on an area to see more information.

If the conservation land layer doesn't appear on the map, click DOC features, and select the Public conservation areas option.

Apply for your concession

1. Fill in the application form:

2. Email the form along with the relevant documents requested to permissions@doc.govt.nz.

DOC will contact you to confirm we are working on your application and liaise with you throughout the process. If your application is approved, we will send you a concession document setting out the terms and conditions of your approval, which you must sign and return before proceeding with your activity.

Timeframe

Complex applications could take several months to be processed.

Your application will likely need to be notified to the public (this is required for all applications with terms longer than 10 years). If your application is notified, your processing fee will include the cost of public notification and any hearing required and your application processing time will be impacted.

How long it takes to process an application

Fees

We charge an application processing fee based on the time required to process your application and staff hourly charge-out rates. These fees recover the costs to process a concession. This includes time spent to consider statutory tests such as managing any negative effects or public access. Complex applications cost more as they take longer to process. After you apply, we will assign your application to a processing category that reflects its complexity.

We expect your application for VNCM will be classified as complex B with a minimum processing fee of $7,600 (plus GST) but will confirm this once your application is accepted. If we expect your processing fee to exceed the minimum fee, we will give you a non-binding fee estimate before we start work.

We will usually invoice your fee after processing is complete. If you withdraw your application, you will be charged for any work already done.

If your application is approved, ongoing permission fees may apply. A position statement on VNCM activity fees can be provided on request.

Permission fees

Contact us

For more information or assistance with your concession, email askpermissions@doc.govt.nz.