Confusion has erupted over a new carbon credit scheme for native forests, with warnings from opposite sides of politics and the environment movement about what it means for the North Coast.
The Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) method was approved under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme by Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Josh Wilson on Thursday, 25 June. It lets state governments earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by permanently stopping planned timber harvesting in defined areas of public native forest.
The NSW Government proposed the method and plans to use it to fund the Great Koala National Park, whose footprint would stretch across forests on the mid-north coast and further inland.
Opposition to the scheme has come from groups that rarely agree with each other, creating confusion about whether this is a good or bad thing environmentally as well as economically. Timber industry figures and the federal Member for Lyne Alison Penfold say it unfairly rewards government for shutting down an industry. Environmental groups say the opposite, warning it lets big polluters buy their way out of cutting emissions. Meanwhile the NSW Government and a climate finance body insist the method is rigorous and will deliver jobs and genuine emissions cuts.
Ms Penfold said the decision would accelerate job losses already under way.
“Workers have already lost their jobs because of the NSW Government’s harvesting moratorium, and this decision will only encourage further permanent job losses across the North Coast,” Ms Penfold said.
“The people paying the price are not politicians in Sydney or Canberra. They are timber workers, contractors, truck drivers, sawmill employees, mechanics, small businesses and regional families who have built their lives around a sustainable forestry industry.”
“The ACCU scheme was established to encourage genuine new emissions reductions and carbon sequestration projects.”
“It was never intended to reward governments for shutting down existing industries and then claiming carbon credits for doing so,” she said
“The Minns Government announced the Great Koala National Park first and then went looking for a funding source. Chris Bowen has now handed them exactly what they wanted.”
But the method was not waved through without scrutiny. The Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC), the independent body that vets carbon methods, spent close to 18 months examining the proposal, running a public consultation that drew 371 submissions before concluding in a letter to Assistant Minister Wilson, dated Friday, 5 June, that the method met the legal integrity standards required.
Forestry Australia, the peak body for professional foresters, backed some of Ms Penfold’s concerns. Forestry Australia President Dr Michelle Freeman said the method “falls short in a number of areas, including additionality, leakage and low ability to generate carbon outcomes.”
Environmental groups also came out against the scheme, though for very different reasons. Wilderness Society NSW Campaigns Manager Sascha Hawkins said turning nature into a carbon credit was dangerous.
“Commodifying nature is an existential threat to genuine climate action. Nature must be protected for the inherent ecological and cultural values it holds, not as a get out of jail free card for big polluters,” Sascha Hawkins said.
Bob Brown Foundation Patron Christine Milne went further, branding the scheme a “Labor scam.”
“This Labor scam means that the cost of protecting forests is licensing pollution, increasing global warming, raising the hazard of bushfires and forest destruction,” Ms Milne said.
Others say the method is exactly what struggling forestry regions need. Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation Chair Dr Ken Henry said carbon-funded forest management would replace an industry already bleeding money.
“The native forest section of the timber industry has been in slow decline for years, the jobs are insecure, and taxpayers are covering the losses generated by government agencies,” Dr Henry said.
In NSW alone, the foundation says carbon-funded forest management is projected to generate around $1.5 billion in net revenue over 15 years and support about 1,700 permanent regional jobs. Over the five years to 2025, native forest logging in the state recorded $105 million in losses and needed a further $170.6 million in taxpayer grants to keep running.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe confirmed the state would proceed to register a carbon project for the national park, with its creation conditional on the project succeeding.
“The creation of the Great Koala National Park will see 100 additional national park roles created on the North Coast,” Ms Sharpe said.
Got something you want to say about this story? Have your say on our opinion and comment hub, North Coast Times Engage