Carbon Conscious Carbon Capture Project 2

Carbon Conscious Carbon Capture Project 2 is a permanent mallee planting project located across multiple properties in the Central and Northern Agricultural Regions of Western Australia, stretching through the Wheatbelt and Mid-West regions inland from coastal hubs like Geraldton and Perth. It was registered in June 2014 and covers a vast project area of 12,938.89 hectares. The surrounding region is heavily utilized for agricultural purposes, particularly broadacre dryland cropping and sheep grazing.

Environmental and mallee planting projects involve establishing permanent plantings of native tree species on land that was previously cleared and used for agriculture for at least five years. Standard requirements dictate that trees must be planted at a sufficient stocking density to eventually achieve forest canopy cover, typically at least 200 stems per hectare, and carbon sequestration is modelled using the government's FullCAM software tool.

The Wheatbelt area features a Mediterranean to semi-arid climate characterized by low to medium winter-dominant rainfall. Soils across this vast agricultural belt typically vary between sandy loams, clay, and duplex soils. Re-establishing deep-rooted mallee trees (such as eucalyptus kochii, polybractea, and loxophleba) in these areas is widely recognized for helping mitigate localized environmental issues like dryland salinity, as well as preventing wind and water erosion.

The project has an interesting corporate history, having originally been developed by Carbon Conscious Limited with millions of native trees planted across its estates between 2009 and 2012. After a participant name change to Alterra Limited in 2016, the carbon business was successfully demerged in 2018 into a separate entity, and the project's proponent became ACCU Asset Management Pty Ltd. The project generates Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) that are highly sought after in the voluntary market, with entities such as the City of Adelaide and AGL Energy historically retiring offsets from this specific project to support their corporate carbon-neutral strategies. Furthermore, its formal Emissions Reduction Fund contract (CAC201436), secured in December 2018, delivered its full commitment and was marked completed in mid-2026.