Help with these projects

How these projects work

Environmental planting projects capture carbon by planting native trees or mallee species to establish forest cover. The type of trees you plant and your planting arrangements will affect how much carbon is stored.

You need to use the free Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) software to model carbon captured in growing trees. You earn carbon credits for modelled increases in stored carbon.

Project activities

You need to plant, and maintain one or more of the following types of plantings:

• Mixed-species environmental planting – a mixture of tree and shrub species that are native to the area.
  
• Mallee species planting – any of the Australian species of the genus Eucalyptus that have multiple stems growing from the ground level (underground lignotuber).

Trees can be planted either as young plants (tube-stock) or through direct seeding. They may be grown in rows (linear belt plantings) or in groups of trees (block plantings).

Eligibility requirements

To be eligible you must:

• Identify eligible land on your property – for example, the land must have been clear of forest for at least five years before you apply to register a project.
• Establish legal right (the right to run your project and claim carbon credits) — for example, holding a lease or other land title, or having a signed agreement with other landholders to run a project on their land.
• Obtain regulatory approvals and consent from everyone with an eligible interest in the project land. Consent holders will vary. They may include banks, state governments (if the land is leased) or relevant native title bodies corporate.
• Make sure your project is new — you cannot have started project activities until we register your project.

Running and reporting on your project

There are operating, reporting and audit obligations in running a project. You will need to report on your project at least once every five years. You receive carbon credits each time you report modelled increases in carbon stored in your plantings over a period of 25 years.

Your project must store carbon for 25 or 100 years to deliver a long-term benefit to the atmosphere (known as ‘permanence’).

Relevant legislation and resources

• Factsheet: Environmental planting projects.
• Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings — FullCAM) Methodology Determination 2014 and the explanatory statement.
• Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011, the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Regulations 2011 and the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015.