New Savanna Fire Management Methods and SavCAM Calculator
On 10 April 2026, the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) officially released two new savanna fire management methods under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme. The two methods are the Savanna Fire Management Sequestration and Emissions Avoidance 2026 Method and the Savanna Fire Management Emissions Avoidance 2026 Method. Alongside these updated methodologies, DCCEEW has introduced the Savanna Carbon Accounting Model, known as SavCAM, a purpose-built calculator that aligns project-level carbon accounting directly with Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory reporting. This is one of the most consequential updates to nature-based carbon offset frameworks in Australia in recent years.
The significance of this update extends well beyond a technical recalibration. The savanna fire management program sits at the intersection of climate policy, ecological management, and First Nations economic development. Currently, 86 registered savanna fire management projects operate across 34.9 million hectares of northern Australia, a land area equivalent to approximately 4.5 per cent of Australia’s total land mass and roughly 25 per cent of the Northern Territory. First Nations communities and Indigenous carbon businesses manage approximately 70 per cent of the registered project area and deliver close to three-quarters of all ACCU abatement generated through savanna fire management activities. The new methods formalise and refine the carbon accounting framework underpinning this activity at a scale that demands close attention from practitioners across carbon advisory, ESG consulting, ecology, and land management.
For environmental consultants advising developers, corporate offset buyers, land managers, and investors in nature-based carbon assets, these new 2026 rules immediately affect how project viability is modelled, how ACCU yields are estimated, and what constitutes a high-integrity offset under the scheme. CSIRO research supporting the methodology development projects the new methods are capable of abating approximately 180 million tonnes of additional emissions over the next 25 years, with an estimated economic benefit of $7.7 billion across northern Australia over the same period. These are figures that will feature prominently in feasibility assessments, corporate sustainability strategies, and investment prospectuses going forward.
Key details of the 2026 savanna fire management methods and SavCAM calculator
The 2026 update introduces a structural distinction that practitioners must understand clearly before advising clients. DCCEEW has separated the framework into two discrete methods. The first, the Savanna Fire Management Sequestration and Emissions Avoidance 2026 Method, accounts for both the carbon sequestered in savanna biomass and the emissions avoided by replacing severe late dry-season wildfires with lower-intensity early dry-season burns. The second, the Savanna Fire Management Emissions Avoidance 2026 Method, is narrower in scope and covers only the avoided emissions component. The choice between the two methods has direct consequences for the number of ACCUs a project can generate and the methodology used to calculate abatement. Selecting the wrong method or misapplying the calculations will result in material inaccuracies in project feasibility assessments.
The central technical change in both 2026 methods is the introduction of SavCAM. The Savanna Carbon Accounting Model replaces the calculation tools used under previous savanna fire management methods and has been specifically designed to ensure that the abatement measured at the project level is consistent with the way emissions and removals from savanna burning are reported in Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. This alignment matters because discrepancies between project-level accounting and national inventory reporting have historically created uncertainty about the integrity of offsets generated by land-based carbon projects. SavCAM addresses this by standardising the underlying assumptions, emissions factors, and sequestration parameters to mirror the inventory methodology. Practitioners advising on ACCU generation must now build their modelling around SavCAM outputs rather than tools used under the previous method framework.
The scientific basis for the methodology rests on a well-documented principle in tropical savanna ecology: early dry-season burns, conducted when vegetation moisture content is higher and fire intensity is lower, release substantially less greenhouse gas per unit area than the severe high-intensity wildfires that characterise the late dry season in northern Australia. The combustion of organic material in late-season fires releases significantly greater quantities of methane and nitrous oxide relative to the biomass consumed, because incomplete combustion is more prevalent under high-intensity fire conditions. By strategically applying low-intensity burns earlier in the season, land managers reduce the fuel load available to late-season fires, thereby reducing total emissions from the project area. The framework also accounts for carbon sequestered in woody and non-woody biomass that recovers in areas where severe fire frequency has been reduced. CSIRO’s estimate that the new methods can support abatement of approximately 180 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions over 25 years reflects this combined sequestration and avoidance benefit across the eligible project area.
The 86 existing savanna fire management projects already operating under the ACCU Scheme will need to transition their accounting to SavCAM and the applicable 2026 method. The implications for ongoing projects are not trivial. Changes to the calculation methodology may alter the projected ACCU yield for existing operations, which in turn affects forward contract obligations.
References and related sources
- Primary source: www.dcceew.gov.au
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This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.
Published: 12 Apr 2026
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