Forests Alive: Protection of Tasmanian Native Forest

Forests Alive: Protection of Tasmanian Native Forest is a native forest protection project encompassing multiple private land holdings across Tasmania. Based on the provided coordinates, the land parcels are widely distributed across the state, with sites located approximately 10km south of Deloraine in the north, near Bothwell in the Central Highlands, and 15km west of Geeveston in the state's south. It was registered in April 2015 and covers an expansive 29,981.43 hectares. The regional areas where these properties are situated are broadly known for agriculture (including sheep and beef cattle grazing), commercial forestry operations, and wilderness conservation.

The project operates under the Carbon Farming Initiative-Designated Verified Carbon Standard Projects methodology. This is a transitional method that allows projects originally validated under the international Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) prior to mid-2014 to enter the Australian scheme and generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The project activities focus on avoided harvesting, which involves legally protecting native forests situated on private land from scheduled commercial timber harvesting in order to preserve their stored biomass and prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

Tasmania’s native forest regions are typically defined by moderate to high rainfall, frequently receiving between 800mm and 1,500mm annually depending on elevation and coastal exposure. The soils supporting these old-growth and regenerating native forests are highly variable across the state but predominantly include moisture-retaining dermosols, kurosols, and nutrient-poor podzols.

Interestingly, this project successfully fulfilled its primary Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC680735) with the Australian Government, which was originally contracted in April 2015 and officially marked as completed in August 2024. In August 2017, the project area underwent a spatial variation where several land parcels were removed; a portion of this excised land was transitioned into the separate, though voluntarily revoked, Lake Echo project. In addition to formal carbon abatement, segments of the forest protected by Forests Alive serve an active ecological purpose as a designated infrastructure buffer for the Cattle Hill Wind Farm in the Central Highlands. This buffer prevents further vegetation clearance and helps protect local biodiversity, including the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. Furthermore, projects under the Forests Alive umbrella have historically attracted major corporate buyers, such as Qantas, looking to offset their emissions while directly supporting native Tasmanian biodiversity.