DCCEEW issues operational framework and technical guidance for 2026 Savanna Fire Management ACCU methods

Overview of 2026 Savanna Fire Management Method Guidance

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) has published technical guidance and operational detail for the 2026 Savanna Fire Management methods under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme, updating its webpage on or around 4 August 2026. The two methods, made under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Cth), commenced in April 2026 and are supported by a Technical Guidance Document also dated April 2026. For environmental consultants, carbon project developers and land managers operating across northern Australia, this guidance settles the practical detail that project teams need to migrate existing projects and design new ones.

The headline shift is scientific rather than administrative. Savanna burning projects have historically earned ACCUs by shifting fire regimes from destructive late dry season burns to earlier, patchier burns that avoid methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The 2026 determinations extend crediting to carbon sequestered in living tree biomass and standing dead wood, a change that materially increases the carbon value attributable to a hectare of well-managed savanna. This matters to Australian environmental professionals because it changes the calculus for every northern land management project, Indigenous ranger programme, and pastoral carbon venture assessing whether to register or transition under the ACCU Scheme.

For developers, lawyers and councils advising on land use across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, the guidance also introduces a new mandatory calculation tool and a revised crediting timeline. Both changes carry direct implications for due diligence, project valuation and long-term liability management, particularly where existing savanna burning agreements or carbon rights are being transacted or renegotiated.

Key Requirements and SavCAM Accounting Rules

Two separate Methodology Determinations now sit under the ACCU Scheme framework. The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative—Savanna Fire Management—Sequestration and Emissions Avoidance) Methodology Determination 2026 allows proponents to claim credits for both avoided emissions and sequestered carbon in biomass. The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative—Savanna Fire Management—Emissions Avoidance) Methodology Determination 2026 remains a standalone emissions avoidance pathway for proponents who do not wish to, or cannot, account for sequestration. Project proponents must select the applicable determination at registration or transition, and the choice affects both the accounting obligations and the permanence period attached to a project.

All carbon accounting under the 2026 methods must be conducted using the Savanna Carbon Accounting Model, known as SavCAM. This tool replaces prior calculation approaches and is designed to align project-level accounting with the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. In practical terms, technical teams and third-party auditors must re-run baseline and ongoing project calculations through SavCAM rather than legacy spreadsheet-based or earlier model tools, and verification now depends on audited SavCAM outputs rather than method-specific manual calculations.

Projects transitioning from earlier savanna burning methods to the 2026 determinations receive an extended crediting period of up to 25 years, running through to 2051. This is materially longer than crediting periods available under prior savanna methods and reflects the inclusion of biomass sequestration, which requires a longer time horizon to demonstrate genuine additionality and carbon stock stability. To manage the risk that comes with crediting living biomass, which can be destroyed in a single severe fire event, DCCEEW has introduced a smoothed sequestration bank mechanism. Rather than issuing lump-sum credits for historical sequestration gains, credits are released progressively into a project’s account over time, which buffers proponents against sudden reversal liabilities and avoids a flood of back-credited ACCUs hitting the market at once.

Verification requirements have been tightened accordingly. Auditors must now review spatial fire mapping data, validated biomass sampling records, and audited SavCAM model runs before ACCUs can be issued. This is a more rigorous evidentiary standard than under prior emissions-avoidance-only methods, where fire scar mapping and burn timing were the primary evidence base. The technical guidance sets out the specific data inputs, sampling protocols and model parameters proponents need to supply to satisfy this standard.

Australian context

Savanna fire management projects sit outside the contaminated land and site assessment frameworks that dominate most Australian environmental consulting work, but the regulatory logic driving the 2026 methods is familiar to practitioners working with NEPM 2013, the PFAS NEMP or ANZG guideline values. In each case, government has responded to improved scientific understanding by tightening technical requirements and mandating standardised calculation or assessment tools rather than leaving methodology to individual practitioner judgement. The mandatory adoption of SavCAM mirrors the way NEPM 2013 requires use of specified health investigation levels and assessment methodologies rather than site-specific first-principles calculation.

For consultants and land managers across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, the 2026 methods sit alongside state-level land management and native title frameworks, and any project transition should be checked against relevant state vegetation management and cultural heritage legislation, particularly where projects involve Indigenous ranger groups exercising native title or joint management rights over savanna country. The Commonwealth guidance does not override these state and territory obligations, and proponents should confirm that consent, land tenure and cultural heritage requirements are satisfied before registering or transitioning a project under the 2026 determinations.

References and related sources

• Primary source: www.dcceew.gov.au
• dcceew.gov.au
• reputex.com
• medianet.com.au
• https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reduction/accu-scheme/methods

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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: 06 Aug 2026

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