GBSAN supports landmark Traprock biodiverse carbon market pilot

Since 1788, 90% of Box Gum woodlands on the east coast of Australia have been cleared, and only a twentieth of what is left, is in good condition. A vulnerable, small amount, less than 5% of the original woodland contains a good representation of the woodland species. Landholders who have these small fragments on their properties are pivotal to their survival, but all landholders play a part in the recovery, or otherwise, of this precious woodland.

 Since 2008 the Federal Government has funded a very successful Box Gum Grassy Woodland Environmental Stewardship Programme. In return for restricting and managing grazing practices and other management practices such as fire and weed management, landholders receive an annual payment. The Programme has been a success and is a model for how landholders can participate and benefit financially from “caring for country”. A number of landholders on the Traprock have been long-term participants in the Programme.

 However while being a success on those participating properties, the uptake has been limited and the Box Gum Grassy Woodland (BGGW) remains vulnerable. There is now a new emerging opportunity that could see this and other similar programmes “turbocharged” in terms of uptake and therefore their positive impact.

 The election of the Albanese Government has seen a review of the existing carbon offsets market and a renewed commitment to the creation of a national biodiversity market. As a result there has been a significant increase in the number of organisations participating in these emerging markets. Known generically as aggregators they are the interface between landholders and the buyers of these “biodiverse carbon” credits that are used to offset the buyers impacts or legal obligations in regards to carbon emissions and impacts on biodiversity.

 GBSAN has played a pivotal role in the establishment of a pilot project involving eight landholders on the Traprock who are partnering with farmer-owned Regen Farmers Mutual (RFM - https://regenfarmersmutual.com) to develop a model that will allow local landholders to participate and benefit from these new emerging markets while expanding the area being cared for under sustainable management regimes. The Traprock was the ideal starting point as it builds of the successful participation of a number of pioneering Traprock landholders that participated in the BGGW programme. A key part of the model will be to link landholdings so that overtime sustainably managed vegetation “corridors” are created that benefit and sustain our local flora and fauna species against the impacts of climate change and other threatening processes.

 GBSAN brokered conversations between RFM and the Traprock Group Association who facilitated engaging Traprock landholders in the pilot. GBSAN also played a key role in bringing our regional natural resource management organization – Southern QLD Landscapes – into the pilot. SQL’s mapping, GIS, monitoring and verification capacity will be crucial if the pilot is to be successful in this new market. Four GBSAN members – Andy Ferrier, Kym Wilson, Michelle Conkas and Rick Humphries also sit on the local pilot steering committee. The Pilot successfully lobbied the State Government’s Land restoration Fund to secure $75,000 to invest in the Pilot.

 The pilot is due to be finished in January 2023 and assuming it is successful in developing a viable model, it will see an expansion of the number of participating Traprock landholders and the expansion of the programme potentially into the Granite Belt…and beyond. The RFM Traprock pilot is a great example of what GBSAN can achieve locally in partnership with other organisations.