Landholders in northern Victoria can now access funding and the services of trusted tree-growing experts to help turn their tree planting ideas into an emissions-reducing reality. Source: Timberbiz
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program is open to landholders in the North Central Catchment Management Authority region.
Through this pilot program, landholders will partner with a service provider to plant and manage trees to store carbon and provide a range of on-farm benefits.
Positives for landholders include improving shade and shelter for stock, enhancing surrounding biodiversity and generating wood, as well as an opportunity to offset their own farm emissions, or generate carbon credits.
“Well designed tree planting projects offer landowners the potential to diversify their income, offset emissions and improve productivity without impacting their primary agricultural output,” Carbon Farming Program Lead Liam Costello said.
“The breadth of expertise offered by our service providers means that landowners can have confidence that tree plantings will complement their broader farm management objectives, while leaving all the administration in the hands of the service provider – it’s a win-win.
“Landowners across a large area of northern Victoria can look to get trees in the ground to benefit themselves, the environment and our economy.”
The $3 million pilot is part of the Victorian Carbon Farming Program, which is a 10-year $15.3 million initiative under the government’s Climate Change Strategy.
Through joint work with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, Victorian landholders can now better estimate the amount of carbon a tree planting project might store.
Thanks to upgrades funded by the Victorian Government, landholders across the state can use the LOOC-C online tool to select an area of land and get an estimate of the total tonnes of carbon abatement, in Australian Carbon Credit Units, potentially available via tree growing activities.
Landholders should visit www.agriculture.vic.gov.au/victorian-carbon-farming-program to learn more about the Victorian Carbon Farming Program and https://looc-c.farm/ toestimate the carbon storage potential of their land.
