Replanting native forest and woodland ecosystems method

To be eligible, land must:

• be part of a modified landscape that has been cleared of native forest or woodland ecosystems
• not currently have native forest cover.

Your project must be entirely located within specific Australian biogeographic sub-regions, as listed in the method. See the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s map of eligible regions.

You can use the Platform for Land and Nature Repair (PLANR) as an entry point to engage in environmental markets. It contains a suite of tools that will help you plan and cost projects in the Nature Repair Market and other nature markets. 

You must define your biodiversity outcome when you submit your application. This stage is important for ensuring the smooth delivery of the project and the later issuance of the biodiversity certificate. 

Guidance on how to define your biodiversity outcome will be available soon.

Replanting projects must involve environmental planting on land within the project area.

• Plantings must be tailored to their location and suited to native biodiversity.
• Planting design, and the targeted composition and structure of the planted community, must reflect the reference ecosystem.
• Planting activities must introduce an appropriate combination of species from the canopy layer, mid-storey layer and ground layer that collectively are capable of achieving forest cover within 25 years after the initial planting.

Replanting projects must be maintained for the permanence period. This may require staggered plantings or remedial plantings, and appropriate complementary activities and management actions. These can:

• support the establishment and maintenance of the plantings
• minimise threats to the plantings and the project outcome.

The following management activities help achieve and maintain your biodiversity outcome, and minimise threats.

Fire

Fire can be used as a mechanism for managing your activity area, as long as you meet the method requirements.

Grazing

You must carefully manage grazing during your project by: 

• excluding livestock – prevent all livestock from grazing an activity area until the plantings are established, which is defined as 90% of individual trees within the area reaching a height of 1.5 metres
• limiting total grazing pressure – manage grazing from livestock, vertebrate pests and overabundant native species (such as kangaroos and wombats).

Ecological thinning

Once a project has been registered for 10 years, thinning may be conducted where appropriate to achieve the biodiversity outcome within the activity area.

Throughout the project’s permanence period, there are some activities that can’t be carried out in the project area, except to the extent necessary for the purposes of the project activities.

Biomass and other removals

Destruction or removal of native plant biomass is generally prohibited in the project area. Plant biomass includes woody debris, standing dead trees, rocks, soil, fruits, nuts and seeds. There are some exceptions: for example, using fallen timber for personal use or thinning for ecological purposes. 

For a full list of these restrictions and exceptions, refer to the section 16 of the method.

Rubbish

Disposal, dumping or burning rubbish within the project area is prohibited. 

Ground and rock disturbance

Ploughing, ripping or equivalent ground and rock disturbance is prohibited, except when it’s necessary for the purpose of establishing plantings. 

In some circumstances under this method, it may be mandatory for you to engage with Indigenous representatives as part of your project application. For all projects, you should consider discussing the aspects of project design and implementation with Indigenous representatives of the project area.

Engaging with Indigenous representatives can enable culturally informed project design and minimise cultural harm.

Regardless of whether your engagement with Indigenous representatives is required or voluntary, any engagement must meet the requirements in the method to ensure it’s appropriate and reflects the preferences of the Indigenous representatives.

For more information, read the department’s cultural statement and Acknowledgement of Country.

Further guidance on Indigenous engagement will be available soon.

Once you register your project, you will need to apply for a variation if you want to make changes or update its details.

You must also let us know if certain project conditions change, including when:

• an event or conduct causes, or is likely to cause, a significant reversal of biodiversity outcome
• you make changes to your project plan
• an Aboriginal person or Torres Strait Islander withdraws consent to the use of Indigenous knowledge or values in the design or implementation of the project
• an activity is carried out in the project area (either by the project proponent, another person or as a result of a natural disturbance) that is a prohibited activity under section 16 of the method. 

See more information on how to vary your project and notification requirements.

Engage a suitably qualified person

You will need to engage a suitably qualified person to help with your project. This person is involved with key requirements including the field survey, ecosystem assessment, project plan development, and project monitoring. The suitably qualified person must have:

• qualifications in ecology, botany or an equivalent discipline
• at least 3 years experience working in their discipline, after the award of qualification
• practised as an ecologist or botanist (or equivalent) within the past 3 years. 

Starting state assessment

You and the suitably qualified person will prepare a site assessment report summarising key project information, including risks to the project and the fieldwork undertaken during the starting state assessment. Examples of items within this assessment include the:

• starting ecosystem condition state of each activity area
• reference ecosystem that will guide restoration efforts
• restoration target level to be achieved. 

The field survey must be conducted at the time of optimal plant growth (or as close as practical to that time) for the relevant natural resource management region. This maximises the potential to identify species.

You must submit the site assessment report with your application to register a project. The starting state assessment must present data consistent with the data submission guidelines. It must be informed by data from:

• virtual (desktop) assessments of the project area, including PLANR
• monitoring undertaken at permanent sampling plots established within your project area.

You must also stratify your project area into activity areas based on reference ecosystems, starting condition and nominated target levels. Further guidance on identifying reference ecosystems will be available soon.

Project plan

When submitting your application to register your project, you must include a project plan. This is a working document that includes a program of actions to guide your project towards your nominated biodiversity outcome and help manage risks. 

The project plan must:

• be prepared or certified by a suitably qualified person
• be maintained and kept up to date throughout the permanence period of the project
• present data consistent with the data submission guidelines
• describe any culturally significant entities and include the plan to enhance or protect these as part of the project (if applicable).

We can only approve your application if we are confident that the project plan is likely to achieve the biodiversity outcome.

The project area is the land on which the biodiversity project will be carried out.

When you apply for project registration, you will be required to:

• supply the location details of the project
• declare your project area boundaries by attaching a geospatial map of your project area, activity areas, sub areas and sampling plots to your application
• demonstrate that you have the right to carry out your project and identify if there are any eligible interest holders.

Your map of the project area needs to comply with the Nature Repair Mapping Guidelines. 

You can use PLANR to map your project area boundary and export a shapefile to upload with your biodiversity project registration application. You must also use PLANR to calculate your ecosystem scores, which are required as part of your application. Read more about understanding ecosystem scores. 

Monitoring requirements under this method track the progress of improvements in biodiversity and ensure compliance throughout the project’s permanence period.

You must monitor ecosystem condition indicators and submit biodiversity project reports at least every 6 months to 5 years, depending on the reporting category. 

Monitoring must be carried out by a suitably qualified person (e.g. ecologist or botanist or equivalent) who also prepares the reports.

To receive a certificate, you must undergo an audit and submit a report on your project that: 

• includes assessments against the project plan, certificate issuance thresholds and restoration target levels
• complies with the data submission guidelines.

When applying for a biodiversity certificate, you must engage a registered greenhouse and energy auditor to conduct an audit and write a biodiversity project audit report. 

You must meet record-keeping requirements throughout the life of your project. Effective record keeping will help when applying for your biodiversity certificate.

This includes maintaining accurate and complete records of all project activities, data from monitoring, and management actions throughout the permanence period. Examples of these records include: 

• starting state assessment and site assessment report
• project plan and any updates or variations
• monitoring data from permanent sampling plots and field surveys, including photos
• evidence of consents, regulatory approvals and Indigenous engagement.

There may be opportunities to design an environmental planting project that meets requirements of both the ACCU Scheme and the Nature Repair Market scheme – this is called stacking.

Stacking refers to 2 or more projects that occur on the same, or partially overlapping, areas of land that are being rewarded for different outcomes. 

To register stacked projects under the ACCU Scheme and Nature Repair Market scheme, you must submit 2 separate applications to us. This is necessary to comply with the separate legislative requirements under each scheme.

Make sure you understand both scheme’s eligibility requirements before starting your planting activities so you can participate. Read the eligibility requirements for the relevant ACCU Scheme method: Reforestation by environmental or mallee plantings FullCAM method 2024. 

Interaction with other schemes

The Nature Repair Market scheme is designed to enable participation with other programs. You must ensure you meet the requirements of each individual scheme.