Commercial drone use

In addition, you must abide by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules for unmanned aircraft.

If you’re planning on using your drone for non-commercial private use only, see recreational drone use.

Pre-application meeting

Applying for a concession for the first time can be a little tricky. To ensure your application goes smoothly we offer a free pre-application meeting. We’ll also help you contact the local iwi to assess whether your proposed activity will have any cultural effects.

Type of concession

Depending on what you want to do and when and how you want to do it, you will either need a one-off concession or a longer term concession: 

• One-off concession – for drone activities for a period of no longer than 3 months.
  Your activity also must:
  • have only minor environmental effects that can easily be managed
  • have clearly defined limits (i.e. number of flights)
  • not take place in the same location more than once in any three-year period.
• Longer term concession – for any other drone activities.

Your DOC advisor will advise you what concession you will need in your pre-application meeting. You can also talk to them about areas where drone use is likely to be approved.

Apply for your concession

Fill in the relevant concession application form – the form relating to the primary reason you are flying your drone. Choose from the following options: 

One-off activity

• Fill in the relevant concession application form. This will be the form relating to the primary reason you are flying your drone:
  • filming activities form 5a (PDF, 74K) (use this form if you want to take photos or footage of natural landscape)
  • sporting events form 6a (PDF, 64K) (use this form if you want to film your sporting event)
  • aircraft activities form (PDF, 813K) or (Word, 105K) (use this form for anything else e.g. monitoring)
• Fill in the applicant information form 1b – one off process (PDF, 189K) or (Word, 354K).
• Email the forms along with the relevant documents requested to permissions@doc.govt.nz.

Your application must include the conservation area you want to access. It may be returned if you do not identify the specific location by conservation area name. Use DOC maps to help you identify this. See also Areas we recommend you apply to use a drone.

We will invoice you once we have processed your application. This is the processing fee only, activity fees are discussed below.Your fee is likely to be $230 plus GST ($264.50 including GST) for each region you apply to use your drone.

Your application should be processed within five working days of receipt. The timeframe may be longer where iwi consultation is required. If your application is approved we will send you a contract which you must sign and return before proceeding with your activity.

Longer term activity

• Fill in the relevant concession application form. This will be the form relating to the primary reason you are flying your drone:
  • filming activities form 5a (PDF, 74K) (use this form if you want to take photos or footage of natural landscape)
  • sporting events form 6a (PDF, 64K) (use this form if you want to film your sporting event)
  • aircraft activities form (PDF, 813K) or (Word, 105K) (use this form for anything else e.g. monitoring)
• Fill in the applicant information form 1a – notified or non-notified process (PDF, 196K) or (Word, 372K).
• Email the forms along with the relevant documents requested to permissions@doc.govt.nz.

Your application must include the conservation area you want to access. It may be returned if you do not identify the specific location by conservation area name. Use DOC maps to help you identify this. See also Areas we recommend you apply to use a drone.

We will invoice you once we have processed your application. The processing fee for a standard application is likely to be $2065 plus GST ($2374.75 including GST). If your application is assessed as complex, covers multiple regions, or includes more than 20 individual locations, this fee is likely to be higher. We will send you an estimate of costs once we have received your application.

Your application should be processed within 55 working days of receipt for simple applications. It can be up to 120 working days if a hearing is required.

If your proposed activity has to be notified to the public because there are likely to be significant environmental affects over the duration of your activity your fee will include the cost of public notification and hearings. We will provide an estimate of the likely application processing time and cost when your application is received.

If your application is approved we will send you a contract which you must sign and return before proceeding with your activity.

Fees

Processing fees

Fees for processing your application are set out above.

Activity fees

See filming and sporting events for the fees relating to these activities. If your activity does not relate to filming and sporting, your DOC advisor can advise you of your fee.

Other ongoing fees

You are also required to pay ongoing concession fees for a longer term concession.