Noona Station Native Forest Protection Project

Noona Station Native Forest Protection Project is an avoided deforestation project located on Noona Station, approximately 90km west-south-west of Cobar in western New South Wales. It was registered in November 2014 and covers 18,018.71ha.

Avoided deforestation projects involve protecting native forest from being deforested and converted to an agricultural system. A key standard requirement for this methodology is that a valid clearing permit for the land must have been issued prior to 1 July 2010. By choosing not to clear the land, the project prevents greenhouse gas emissions that would have otherwise occurred.

The Cobar region is well known for large-scale semi-arid pastoral operations, particularly merino sheep and cattle grazing. The area is classified as semi-arid with typically low rainfall, and soils are generally red earths, sandy loams, and hard red clay subsoils.

This project uses allometric equations applied to tree measurements, which are collected through detailed biomass surveys across the project area to determine the retained carbon stock. Originally involving local pastoralists Rhonda Hansen and Robert Hansen, a variation in January 2021 transferred the primary participant name to Terra Carbon Pty Limited. Additionally, the project updated its methodology in May 2015 from the original 2013 determination to the Avoided Deforestation 1.1 standard.