ADVANCED NOTICE Developing a technology enabled exotic forest description for New Zealand.

Description

RFx ID: 32741043 Organisation: Ministry for Primary Industries Open date: Friday, 10 October 2025 4:00 PM +13:00 Close date: Tuesday, 21 October 2025 5:00 PM +13:00 Categories: 70150000 - Forestry Region: New Zealand Overview: The National Exotic Forest Description (NEFD) is a foundational dataset for New Zealand’s forestry sector that has been delivered annually since 1985. It underpins critical functions across forestry policy, climate reporting, land-use planning, and environmental statistics. The NEFD is a tier 1 statistic supporting a wide array of government and sector priorities, contributing to key datasets used by agencies such as Stats NZ and the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), including GDP components and for greenhouse reporting. There is an opportunity to use technology to support delivery of a more complete, timely, and representative NEFD dataset that also delivers on government commitments to lowering the response burden for businesses. We are open to a variety of options provided any new option for the NEFD also has consideration for the changes to the technology landscape (e.g. spatial technologies, availability of admin data) and incorporate capabilities where these will enhance and future proof survey outcomes. It is expected options proposed will utilise open-sourced imagery rather than having to obtain new imagery sets to support budgetary and imagery storage constraints and minimise duplication of effort and expense across Government. The solution must meet a defined set of requirements which will be detailed in the RFP when released, supporting the modernisation of the National Exotic Forest Description (NEFD). We intend to go to market in November 2025. The opportunity will be advertised on the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS).