At any price? Carbon Credits and the Great Koala National Park

The Great Koala National Park is now contingent on the Improved Native Forest Management (INFM) method, according to the NSW government.

What does this mean for koalas?

The Great Koala National Park would be terrific for the future of some koalas in northern NSW. It links up a bunch of existing national parks, and some state forests and ensures that those are not logged.

But those koalas will still be affected by climate change. They are still at risk from fire, extreme heat, droughts and floods, and the increased likelihood of disease that comes with these. https://theconversation.com/koalas-are-running-out-of-time-will-a-140-million-national-park-save-them-264789

These threats to koalas can only be reduced by reducing carbon emissions.

The Great Koala National Park (GKNP) doesn’t reduce carbon emissions. These trees are already there, doing their part in soaking up carbon. The GKNP doesn’t add any additional carbon storage. (Note, no new trees are expected in the GKNP – it is all existing national park or state forest)

The NSW government are trying to claim that the GKNP does reduce emissions, because they were planning to cut it all down, one day, which would have increased emissions, in the future. Hmm.

That’s like saying that you lost weight because you didn’t eat the chocolate cake you were thinking of eating 10 years ago. Yeah, nah.

Even if you accept that as a genuine emissions reduction, NSW Labor said in January 2015 they weren’t going to cut it all down. They even said how big the Great Koala National Park would be:
https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/nsw/foley-promises-to-protect-koalas-20150119-p5sto2.html

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-17/nsw-election-labor-parks-koalas-renewables-environment-plan/6325388

Now we know that election promises are not worth the paper they’re written on, but really? For NSW Labor to admit they were planning to break this promise all along is political suicide that even the likes of Barnaby Joyce wouldn’t commit.

All that aside, at some point the NSW Labor party realised that with some tricky accounting they could make money out of creating the GKNP. But it was illegal at the time, so they’d have to talk to some mates and get it made legal before the Park was created.

Remember how frustrated we all were at how long it was taking after Labor won the election in March 2023? That’s why.

In 2024, the NSW government designed a new method: the Improved Native Forest Management method. Try to understand it, if you will. But it’s a scam – you just have to look at the name of it to know that. Here’s the application for the method by NSW DCCEEW, released on Freedom Of Information: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/79248.pdf

The INFM method is controversial. It’s being argued in Parliament – its so bad that both the left and the right hate it.

Worse – the INFM method is designed by the same people who will make money from it. They also oversee it. They are judge, jury, client and supplier. https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260806-we-can-do-better-for-our-forests-than-the-infm-method

For the Australian people to accept this rubbish would require a level of trust in government that we haven’t seen in centuries.

If the INFM goes ahead, it will open the gates for all state governments to ‘sell off’ our public native forests to big polluters. Big polluters won’t have any incentive to reduce their emissions, they will just pay government for them. Knowing government and their links with big polluters, I believe that won’t last long anyway – in no time the polluters will ask for subsidies to cover the payments.

A small cohort of NSW environment groups are pushing for us all to lay down and just accept this dodgy scam. A far larger group of prestigious, highly respected NGOs are opposing – including Australian Conservation Foundation, Bob Brown Foundation, The Wilderness Society, Wilderness Australia, Australian Forests and Climate Alliance – and lots of grass roots conservation organisations: Koala Clancy Foundation, Save Sydney’s Koalas, Friends of Alberton Wests Forests, Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation, Ballarat Wildlife Rehabilitation & Conservation , Magnetic Island Koala Hospital , Koala Action Inc, Western Port Biosphere Foundation, Lawrence Koalas, Save Evans River and Environment, and many others; plus The Australia Institute, all asking for us to oppose this IFNHM method with all our might.