GreenCollar Group will issue the first ever Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUS) for a Native Forest Protection project on a Western Lands lease.
GreenCollar Group said it had worked closely with landholders in Western NSW for the last three years to develop forestry projects under the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI).
GreenCollar Group is working with landholders to manage over 50,000 ha of Native Forest in Western NSW for carbon whilst maintaining traditional farm activities including grazing and cropping, it said.
The ACCUs generated from these projects will be sold to companies with liabilities under the Carbon Pricing Mechanism as well as the government’s new Emission Reduction Fund.
“The creation of these carbon credits represents a significant new income stream to farmers on Western Lands Leases. For farmers carbon credits are now an important part of the picture when making land use planning decisions,” said James Schultz, CEO of GCS.
“This marks a watershed moment for leasehold properties and we look forward to more projects now that the pathway is open. The issuance follows two years of hard work by GCS and Western Lands to put in place the policies to make such approvals possible. We liaised directly with the Ministers and State Government who were incredibly helpful,” said Lewis Tyndall, Director of Legal and Compliance at GCS.
Native Forest Protection projects involve the sustainable management of forestry and agricultural projects for the purposes of generating carbon credits under the CFI.
Farmers are able to continue grazing, but will receive additional income by managing the farm in such a way as to also protect and optimize carbon stocks in native eucalypt and cypress forests.
“Approval for our latest and first of a kind project comes just weeks after we were issued the first ever Australian carbon credit units for the first native forestry protection project under the CFI, the Horse Ridges Native Forest project,” Schultz said.
-This article was originally published here on The Australian website, 24 February 2015
