The Federal Government has adopted the Improved Native Forest Method (INFM) that allows governments to earn carbon credits (ACCUs) for 15 years if they end logging of public native forests and protect them for 100 years.
The NSW Government are proposing protection for State Owned Native Forests in exchange for the introduction of their carbon credits scheme model. [!!]
If this somewhat protective model is rejected then the Forestry Industry model will be adopted.
The Federal Greens are likely to vote cause the rejection of the current model with the consequences that the Forestry Industry Model will be adopted.
The Federal Greens are opposed the current model as they internationally politically oppose the whole of the carbon credits scheme concept, perhaps admirably so, however NEFA points to the realities on the ground of the government proposal, they see the government proposal as an immediate long term forest protections for public native forests which otherwise are being destroyed, and a carbon credits scheme as anyway factually inevitable and the industry model being adopted instead if the Greens (Federal) block the current model.
The Federal Greens have asked for the parliamentary vote to be delayed from mid-August to September 15 specifically so the party room could consult. It is decision time at Greens HQ and therefore this is your opportunity to affect the outcome.
If the government proposed scheme model for carbon credits fails, then the industry will propose an ecologically far worse scheme model, which both the government and opposition will have to support because there will be no other.
CEC Note: The Caldera Environment Centre note that many of the Local Tweed Greens actually support NEFA on the acceptance of the government proposal. The Federal Greens Party however doesn’t.
From our Friends at the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA):
NEFA: “We are asking you to contact the Federal Greens and respectfully urge them not to vote with the National Party. [Their email addresses and a text section to copy and paste are at the bottom of the page]
NEFA:
This isn’t about whether carbon markets are perfect.
It’s about whether we seize a rare opportunity to protect our forests or risk another decade of industrial logging.
Please let them know that:
- you support ending logging of NSW public native forests as soon as possible;
- you believe the INFM provides a practical pathway to achieve that goal; and
- you ask them not to close off this opportunity.
- Our Forests Can’t Afford to Wait.”
The Federal Government has adopted the Improved Native Forest Method (INFM) that allows governments to earn carbon credits (ACCUs) for 15 years if they end logging of public native forests and protect them for 100 years.
This has become a hot political issue, with some conservation groups siding with the loggers in calling for the Greens to support the National Party’s disallowance in the federal Senate, while others see it as an opportunity to end logging.
NEFA: “The Federal Government has adopted the Improved Native Forest Method (INFM) that allows governments to earn carbon credits for 15 years if they end logging of public native forests and protect them for 100 years. This is a game changer.
“When in September 2025 the NSW Government announced its intent to make 176,000 ha of State Forests into the Great Koala National Park, it made adoption of a carbon credit method a precondition. They expect ACCUs to generate at least $300 million over 15 years for park management and environmental repair.
“The INFM requires the NSW Government to honour their promise to create the Great Koala National Park and provides a major financial incentive for them to end logging of all public native forests, rather than extend Wood Supply Agreements that could lock in logging until 2038.
“Rather than losing $32 million in 2025 logging them, they can make $100 million a year from carbon credits by protecting them. The income could pay for transition packages for the loggers, park management and forest rehabilitation.
Many people have genuine concerns about how our carbon markets work, so do we. Professor Andrew Macintosh has previously exposed many of the rorts, so he has designed INFM to deliver high integrity credits which deliver 3 times as much carbon abatement for the 15 year crediting period as what is paid for.
Professor David Lindenmayer has endorsed the method, though some conservation groups are opposing it, see Response to Criticisms of INFM.
We do need carbon offsets for unavoidable and hard to abate emissions. Protecting public native forests will deliver high integrity offsets, real carbon abatement and a multitude of environmental benefits. Protecting the Great Koala National Park would represent less than one percent of total ACCUs, and if all logging of public native forests is stopped this would generate only 5% of ACCUs. The NSW Government’s decision to rule out selling ACCU’s from the Great Koala National Park to coal and gas companies is a welcome assurance.
The National Party has lodged a disallowance motion for the INFM, to be decided on 15 September (originally 18 August) describing it as a death knell for the native timber industry. The timber industry, along with some conservation groups, have called on the Greens to support the disallowance.
We are concerned that a disallowance is likely to lead to the alternative scenarios of Wood Supply Agreements being extended to lock in logging until at least 2038, and the industry replacing INFM with their own method that allows them to claim carbon credits from modified logging.
Another 12 years of increasing logging intensity will be devastating for our forests, their inhabitants and us. Will the vote on September 15 be the death knell the loggers or our forests?
If you want to know more about the INFM method then listen to these presentations by Professors Andrew Macintosh and David Lindenmayer, as well as campaigner Susie Russell:
An alliance of conservation groups have written to the Federal Greens asking them not to disallow the INFM.
‘We are asking you to contact the Federal Greens and respectfully urge them not to vote with the National Party.
Please let them know that:
- you support ending logging of NSW public native forests as soon as possible;
- you believe the INFM provides a practical pathway to achieve that goal; and
- you ask them not to close off this opportunity.
- Our Forests Can’t Afford to Wait.
This isn’t about whether carbon markets are perfect.
It’s about whether we seize a rare opportunity to protect our forests or risk another decade of industrial logging.’
Contact:
Larrisa Waters here
Mehreen Faruqi here
David Shoebridge here
Sarah Hanson Young here
Nick McKim here
Penny Allman -Payne here
Peter Whish-Wilson here
Jordan Steele-John here
Barbara Pocock here
Steph Hodgins-May here
Our forests can’t afford to wait.“
The Caldera Environment Centre note that the Local Tweed Greens actually support NEFA on the Federal proposal.
