Overview

> The climate change function transferred to our department from the Department of the Environment and Energy on 1 February 2020.

About this method

This method can be used by landholders who want to regenerate native vegetation on land where native forest is being suppressed and earn carbon credits. This method uses the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) software to model the carbon abatement of projects.

Legal status

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest—1.1) Methodology Determination Variation 2016 was made on 17 March 2016, which varied the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest—1.1) Methodology Determination 2013

The variation introduced a number of changes to the method, foremost that the method now requires carbon abatement to be modelled using the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) rather than the Reforestation Modelling Tool (RMT). See below for further details on the changes and the variation process.

Other regulatory requirements

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 was amended on 21 November 2018 to clarify the timeframes within which land must attain forest cover to obtain further carbon credits and to ensure the Clean Energy Regulator has the information necessary to assess compliance with method requirements.

How does it work?

Projects under this method capture carbon by changing land management practices to facilitate regeneration of a native forest.

Landholders can assist regeneration through activities such as excluding livestock from the project area, managing the timing and extent of grazing, managing feral animals and non-native plants in the project area and stopping activities such as mechanical destruction of natural regrowth.

The method uses the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) to work out the carbon captured by the project. Impacts of disturbances such as fires as also accounted for.

The method was varied in February 2016 to use FullCAM. Participants registered on an older version of the method must model carbon accumulation using the Reforestation Modelling Tool (RMT).

Projects are subject to permanence obligations. This means the project must be maintained for a nominated period of either 100 or 25 years.

Eligibility and restrictions

Projects need to meet the following requirements to be eligible under this method:

  • The project area has not had forest cover (20 per cent crown cover consisting of trees of at least two metres in height) over the ten years before project commencement due a suppression mechanism (i.e. grazing, mechanical destruction).
  • The area of regeneration must have the potential to attain forest cover.
  • The regrowth may only be grazed by livestock if the grazing does not materially impact the carbon stocks.
  • The project must establish forest cover through the promotion of natural regrowth of vegetation, and not through direct seeding or tree planting.
  • Since the method was varied in 2016, conservation land can be eligible for projects under a limited set of conditions. Projects on conservation land must undertake weed or feral animal control and demonstrate that management goes above and beyond what would occur under standard practice.
  • The regrowth must not be harvested except for in very limited circumstances such as hazard reduction.
  • You cannot establish projects on land that has been cleared unlawfully.

Monitoring, reporting and auditing

You will be required to monitor the project area to track regeneration of vegetation and attainment of forest cover and to account for disturbances such as fire.

Projects must report regularly (at least once every five years) to demonstrate method requirements are being met, including progress to and eventual attainment of forest cover, and to report on carbon abatement. Projects are required to follow the requirements of the Carbon Farming Initiative Mapping Guidelines and required to take into account guidance on stratification, evidence and records for projects under Human-Induced Regeneration and Native Forest from Managed Regrowth methods (published by the Clean Energy Regulator).

Projects must also be audited by a registered national greenhouse and energy reporting (NGER) auditor.

Variation to the method

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest—1.1) Methodology Determination Variation 2016 was made on 17 March 2016, which varied the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest—1.1) Methodology Determination 2013.

With the variation made on 17 March 2016 the method now requires carbon stocks and fire emissions to be modelled using the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) rather than the Reforestation Modelling Tool (RMT). The method now clarifies arrangements for projects transferring from other methods, negative abatement and adding project area after the commencement of the project. It also clarifies a number of definitions and project requirements, makes provision for the inclusion of conservation land and makes a number of minor consequential changes.

The variation followed two public consultation periods:

  • Original draft Variation: 18 September–2 October 2015
  • Revised draft Variation: 9–23 February 2016

September 2015 public consultation

The following draft variation and explanatory statement were released for public comment during the September 2015 consultation:

The following non-confidential submissions were received through the September 2015 consultation process:

February 2016 public consultation

The following draft variation and explanatory statement were released for public comment during the February 2016 consultation:

The following non-confidential submissions were received through the February 2016 consultation process:

Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC) advice

In 2021, the ERAC commissioned an analysis of the Human Induced Regeneration (HIR) method

Superseded versions of the Method

The superseded versions of this method, as in force prior to variations made on 1 July 2015 and 22 March 2016, are available on the Federal Register of Legislation as linked below. Users that registered projects under these versions, and who have not transferred their project(s) to a newer version, are required to continue to follow them.

These versions of the method use the Reforestation Modelling Tool (RMT) to determine carbon sequestration in tree biomass.

The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee (DOIC) endorsed the superseded version of the method.

To transfer from a superseded version of the method to the current version, users should refer to the rules set out in section 13 of the current version.

Method tools

FullCAM

Participants are required to use the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) software to calculate the carbon abatement of their project(s). The most recent public release of FullCAM can be found at the link below:

The FullCAM Guidelines linked below set out the requirements that users must follow to calculate a project's carbon abatement with FullCAM:

FullCAM update

The Department will be releasing an update to FullCAM for public use in September 2020. A pre-release version of the FullCAM update is available to enable proponents to familiarise themselves with new features and calibrations. This version is for preview purposes only, and does not constitute the latest publicly available version of FullCAM that is required to be used by ERF methods. See the FullCAM update for Emissions Reduction Fund vegetation projects for information on how the 2020 pre-release version of FullCAM differs from the 2019 pre-release version. You can also provide comments on the draft method-specific FullCAM Guidelines to support the pre-release.

RMT

Superseded versions of this method have used the Reforestation Modelling Tool (RMT) to calculate carbon abatement. Proponents with projects still registered under the superseded versions of the method will need to use this tool to calculate their project carbon abatement.

Mapping Guidelines

Participants need to meet the requirements of the Carbon Farming Initiative Mapping Guidelines for mapping project areas and carbon estimation areas. The most recent public release of the CFI Mapping Guidelines can be found at Spatial mapping guidelines.

Forest Cover Data

Users of this method may be interested in viewing Forest cover data layers available on Forest Tools and Data.

Timeline

  • Opened
    closed
    1 November 2018
  • Closed
    closed
    1 November 2018