DOMESTIC OFFSETS INTEGRITY COMMITTEE
C/- DOIC Secretariat
GPO Box 854
CANBERRA ACT 2601
The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP
Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Mr Dreyfus
The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee has considered the following activity proposed for
inclusion on the positive list under the Carbon Farming Initiative:

Protection of native forest on freehold land where:
a) local, State or Commonwealth legislation prohibits:
(i)
clearing without consent or
(ii)
harvest without prior approval of a harvest plan; and
b) the landholder received consent to clear or harvest from the relevant local, State or
Commonwealth regulatory authority before 1 July 2010; and
c) the approval to harvest or clear does not require a vegetation offset to mitigate any
impact from the action.
The Committee considers that this proposed activity is suitable for inclusion on the positive
list for the reasons provided in the Statement of Reasons.
Yours sincerely
AJ Press
A/g Chair
Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee
21 January 2013
STATEMENT OF REASONS
The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee considers that the following activity is suitable for inclusion
on the positive list for the reasons outlined below.
Protection of native forest on freehold land where:
a) local, State or Commonwealth legislation prohibits:
(i)
clearing without consent or
(ii)
harvest without prior approval of a harvest plan; and
b) the landholder received consent to clear or harvest from the relevant local, State or
Commonwealth regulatory authority before 1 July 2010; and
c) the approval to harvest or clear does not require a vegetation offset to mitigate any impact
from the action.
Clearing means the conversion of native forest to grassland, cropland or settlements.
Grassland, cropland and settlements is defined in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National
Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
Clearing consent means legislative approval to commence clearing issued by the relevant regulatory
authority.
Harvest plan means a plan prepared in accordance with the relevant legislation that identifies areas
of native timber forest scheduled for harvesting, timing of harvest and estimated volumes to be
harvested or other similar approval to harvest timber.
Native forest means an area of land that:
a) is dominated by trees that are located within their natural range; and have attained, or have
the potential to attain, a crown cover of at least 20 per cent of the area of land; and have
reached, or have the potential to reach, a height of at least 2 metres; and
b) is not a forest established for harvest.
Background
This activity involves permanently protecting carbon stores in native forests.
The activity is limited to areas of native forest on freehold land that are at imminent risk of being
cleared or harvested. This can be demonstrated in circumstances where the landholder obtained
consent to clear or approval of a harvest plan under state or territory legislation before 1 July 2010.
This activity does not include the protection of forests that can be cleared or harvested without
approval. This is because many Australian native forests that can lawfully be cleared or harvested are
not at imminent risk because these activities would not be cost effective.
Reasons for advice
Prior to the commencement of the CFI, landholders are unlikely to have sought clearing or harvest
consent unless they had a real intention to clear or harvest. The process of obtaining clearing or
harvest approvals is time consuming and may involve substantial costs. Where clearing or harvesting
consent has been granted, a decision to not proceed is likely to involve significant opportunity costs.
For these reasons it is reasonable to assume that the number of landholders, who sought and received
consent to clear before the commencement of the CFI and who are not proceeding with clearing, is
unlikely to be common practice.