Forest scientists have welcomed the deferral of the Senate vote on the Improved Native Forest Management Method (INFM Method) to 15 September, saying the additional four weeks should be used to publish the modelling behind the method and correct its accounting.

The disallowance motion, lodged by NSW Nationals Senator Ross Cadell, had been listed for debate today. It now sits on the Tuesday of the September sitting week.

Forestry Australia President Dr Michelle Freeman said the time should go into the technical work. “The deferral is welcome. Four weeks is enough to publish the modelling and correct the accounting, and that is what we are asking for,” Dr Freeman said. “Senators should be voting on a method that has been tested in the open.”

The INFM Method allows state governments to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by ending timber harvesting in state forests. New South Wales intends to register the area encompassing the Great Koala National Park on the mid North Coast, as the first project.

A briefing note published by Forestry Australia on 31 July tested the method’s modelling and accounting framework and found it structurally biased towards over-crediting. That means the method may issue more carbon credits than the actual climate outcome can justify.

“The method uses inappropriate modelling approaches and accounting timeframes to characterise harvesting impacts and forest regrowth post-harvest,” Dr Freeman said. “These choices mean the climate benefit claimed by the INFM method could be overstated by 40 to 100 per cent. For a method that might generate ACCUs worth hundreds of millions of dollars this is a material issue.”

Meanwhile, a second briefing note, published last week, identified an additional problem. Credits are calculated across the whole project area, while the obligation to keep that carbon standing for 100 years applies only inside mapped carbon protection areas.

Harvesting can therefore be reduced outside protection areas during the crediting years, earn credits, and return to earlier levels once the crediting stops.

Requests for the underlying modelling have gone unanswered since consultation opened more than a year ago.

“Forestry Australia raised our concerns more than a year ago and asked for the data and modelling that would allay them. We have asked to be proven wrong, yet still nothing has been released. Further, material changes were made after public consultation closed without the chance for independent scrutiny. ” Dr Freeman said. “The lack of transparency around the development of this method is deeply concerning. It does not meet expectations for a high integrity ACCU scheme method”.

Forestry Australia also shares the concerns widely communicated by other environmental and industry stakeholders that the method does not sufficiently deal with additionality and leakage.

Forestry Australia has asked for corrections to the INFM Method before any project is registered or any credit issued. Some of these requests include:

1. Lengthen the accounting window
2. Align forest modelling with Australia’s national greenhouse accounts, and
3. Attach permanence obligations to every tonne credited.

A working model already exists.

The 2022 Plantation Forestry Method assesses carbon outcomes over the long term, modelling carbon stocks over 100-years, not the 15 years used by the INFM Method. Importantly, financial assessments and forest management plans behind plantation method projects are reviewed and signed off by independent experts, such as Registered Forestry Professionals.

“The plantation method shows what a forest carbon method looks like when it is built properly,” Dr Freeman said. “The accounting window matches the life of the forest, and a registered professional puts their name to the plan.”

“Forestry Australia wants the ACCU Scheme to succeed. Its integrity depends on every credit representing a genuine, additional and conservatively measured climate benefit. That is what protects buyers and the landholders already delivering real carbon outcomes,” Dr Freeman said.

Today is National Forestry Day. It is a day to recognise the critically important role actively managed forests play in climate change mitigation, securing biodiversity, delivering timber to build our homes and cultural connection. We need ACCU scheme methods that support these roles, whilst delivering genuine carbon benefits.

ENDS

Contact: Jason Ross Marketing & Communications Manager M: 0448 190 055

ABOUT FORESTRY AUSTRALIA

Forestry Australia is an independent, not-for-profit professional association representing more than 1,150 forest scientists, managers, professionals and growers. Operating across native forests, plantations, farm forestry and environmental services, our members bring deep scientific knowledge and practical experience in forest, fire, carbon, tree-growing and landscape management. Through their work, they study, manage and care for Australia’s forests and are committed to delivering positive environmental, social, cultural and economic outcomes across all forest types and land tenures.

Briefing Note: Deferred harvesting and permanence under the Improved Native Forest Management Method (INFM Method), 13 August 2026.