This project is located East of Monto in QLD in the Brigalow Belt South and South Eastern Queensland bioregion. The property lies at the head of the Burnett River, with half of the land in a crater of a prehistoric volcano, and the other half consisting of undulating terrain. The dominant species observed on the property from field surveys include Eucalyptus melanophloia, Acacia melanoxylon, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Corymbia tessellaris, Eucalyptus fibrosa,  Eucalyptus crebra, Corymbia citriodora and Corymbia intermedia.

The objective of this project is to regenerate natural woodlands and shrublands.  This is achieved by the cessation of clearing vegetation and, controlled grazing and  feral animal management across the project area including fencing upgrades and water management. In addition to sequestering carbon, regeneration of native vegetation in the project area reverses land degradation caused by land clearing and livestock and stabilises soils reducing erosion.

The Project (ERF141164) was declared project under the ‘Human Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Forest 1.1’ methodology (2013 c3) (the Determination) and generates Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).  This is the fifth version of the Human Induced Regeneration methodology.

The project has issued Kyoto ACCUs in accordance with the date the carbon sequestration occurred. Kyoto ACCUs are issued for all carbon sequestration which has occurred after 14 May 2013 and non-Kyoto ACCUs are issued for carbon sequestration that occurred prior to this date.

 

Methodology Determination	Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest – 1.1 Methodology Determination 2013 c3
Project Declaration Date [1]	22 January 2020
Permanence Period	25 years
Baseline Period [2] (10 year period before project application)	September 2009 – September 2019
Baseline management (Management during the Baseline Period)	Suppression of development of forest cover through uncontrolled livestock grazing, uncontrolled feral animal populations and mechanical or chemical destruction, or suppression, of regrowth. Confirmed by evidence.
Modelling Commencement Date [3] (Date at which sufficient regeneration had started in the CEA)	01 January 2015 Note: the method requires there to be some vegetation present, at the modelling commencement in order to confirm that the area has the capacity to regenerate.
Modelling Tool	FullCAM 2016
Audit	There has been 1 audit undertaken by registered Greenhouse and Energy Auditors which have confirmed the project complies with the Methodology Determination and the requirements of the CFI Act in all material respects for the periods audited. The most recent audit report was issued on the 18 June 2021.

 

HIR project Carbon Estimation Areas

 

What are Carbon Estimation Areas?

A CEA is an area of land within a project area where the project activity or activities are being carried out to sequester carbon (for example, the cessation of mechanical or chemical clearing or management of timing and extent of grazing to enable regeneration of vegetation to forest) and for which ACCUs can be credited^[4].

These are the areas where project activities occur and where carbon abatement will be modelled applying standardised estimation formulae approved by the Clean Energy Regulator.  There can be one or many CEAs on a Project Area.

Each CEA must contain areas of eligible land greater than 0.2ha in size in which the project activities are implemented and which have started to become native forest through regeneration.

• Eligible Land is land that didn’t have forest cover during the baseline period (ie. the 10 years before the Project Application was made) and which has been used or managed in a way that suppresses development of forest cover.
• A particular area of land has Forest cover if the land has an area of at least 0.2 of a hectare and has trees that are 2 metres or more in height and provide crown cover of at least 20% of the land.

 

Stratification of Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 HIR Project Area into CEAs

Stratification is the process of “demarcating the boundaries of CEAs from ineligible and non-implementation areas within a project area”^[5].

There are Guidelines setting out how Project Areas are stratified into CEAs.  These include rules about evidence, stratification and record keeping to support the requirements in the CFI Rule 2015 (2018 and 2019 Amendments) including key method eligibility requirements.

Stratification of the Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 HIR Project was carried out in accordance with the Determination and first reported to the Clean Energy Regulator for a reporting period ending 28 February 2021.

A summary of the stratification of the Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 HIR Project is set out below:

Project Area	6,789 hectares
Number of Carbon Estimation Areas (CEA)	19
Total Carbon Estimation Areas (CEA) Size	381 hectares
Total area excluded from CEA	6,402 hectares
Excluded from CEA – Pre-existing forest cover (forest present at any time during the baseline period)	5,211 hectares
Excluded from CEA No forest potential (areas of land that do not meet the requirements of forest potential)	483 hectares
Excluded from CEA Non-project area (areas of land that are within the project area but excluded for other reason e.g. infrastructure or areas excluded for production purposes)	708 hectares

This map shows the project area boundary and the different elements of project design including the carbon estimation areas and exclusion areas.  This stratification may reflect both initial stratification and subsequent revisions.

In order to validate the stratification of the Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 HIR project in accordance with the Determination and Guidelines, GreenCollar carried out extensive field surveys and data collection. This included collection of data on existing vegetation species, stem density and vegetation height.

The Guidelines also require a map accuracy assessment be completed before offset reporting.  This assessment must include the field sample plots, which can be used in conjunction with remote sensing samples.  The Clean Energy Regulator will accept mapping accuracies at or above 85 per cent for pre-existing forest and forest potential classification types.  The overall accuracy of the Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 classification was 95.52% which is greater than the 85% minimum requirement of The Guidelines.

After the completion of the map accuracy assessment, any additional exclusion areas were delineated prior to finalising the initial stratification. The extent of exclusion areas (totalling 6,402 ha), comprised of pre-existing forest cover (5,211 ha) and areas which classified as having no forest potential (483 ha). Through this process a final eligible CEA area of 381 ha was confirmed.

This maps shows a current satellite image of the project area.  Satellite imagery and remote sensing datasets were used to identify eligible land and exclusion areas.

This map shows a summary of all CEA and Exclusion Areas.

 

Project Sequestration and Abatement

This version of the HIR Methodology requires using the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) to determine the sequestration of carbon stocks and emissions required to calculate the net abatement amount for each reporting period. The carbon dioxide equivalent net abatement amount in relation to a reporting period for the project is taken to be the change in carbon stock for the project area less the project emissions. Any carbon stock that accumulated by the crediting start date for the project is calculated as the initial carbon stock and is removed from the calculation of abatement as the proponent is not entitled to credits for it.

See below for the average per hectare sequestration for the Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 HIR project.

Implementation & Monitoring

The activities for the project are:

• the management of the timing & extent of grazing, and
• the management, in a humane way, of feral animals
• the implementation of a decision to permanently cease the mechanical or chemical destruction or suppression of regrowth

Since project commencement these activities have been undertaken across the project area to assist the regeneration of native forest in attaining forest cover. Once the initial offsets report has been completed, GreenCollar works closely with the land manager of the project property to collect land management information every quarter. This is reviewed and reported on in each offsets report.

A summary of monitoring activities and evidence collection undertaken on this project is set out below:

• Evidence collection in relation to grazing and herd management
• Evidence collection in relation to removal and reduction of feral animals
• Evidence of fire management activities
• Evidence collection from land manager as to other land management activities as relevant
• Change detection assessments
• Repeat biomass inventory surveys to track biomass change of regenerating vegetation
• Daily fire hotspot monitoring and review of Seasonal Fire Risk
• Review of SPEI drought index
• Regeneration Gateway Checks

These surveys are currently not required under the HIR method but are implemented by GreenCollar to provide additional assurance that biophysical threats to carbon stores such as grazing, drought and fire are not negatively impacting the regeneration and to track progress of regeneration of the native forest. In addition, the data collected is utilised for broader research purposes.

This map shows the points within the project area where vegetation biomass surveys were conducted as part of the monitoring process.

A Biomass Waypoint is a randomly allocated point within the project area where sampling data is collected.

Regeneration Checks

The Guidelines require that Proponents must provide regeneration checks at least once every five years from the start of the project’s last or only crediting period until CEAs pass their forest cover assessment date^[6], and upon request by the Clean Energy Regulator.

A summary of regeneration checks required for the Catchment Conservation Alliance – Great Barrier Reef Initiative Site 7 HIR Project is set out below:

Regeneration Check: Year 6 7.5% canopy cover at 100ha scale[7]	01 January 2020 – Completed
Regeneration Check: Year 10 10% canopy cover at 10ha scale[8]	01 January 2024
Forest Cover Assessment Date [9]	01 January 2030

The process and methodology includes one or more of the three evidence requirements and reporting:

• Evidence level 1: Change detection analysis, or
• Evidence level 2: Remote sensing analysis and/or
• Evidence level 3: Field data; and
• Reporting

 

Project Area Files

GIS shapefiles for the project can be downloaded here. These files detail the project stratification including the carbon estimation areas and exclusion areas.