Darling River Eco Corridor 21 (Revoked)

Darling River Eco Corridor 21 (Revoked) was a carbon abatement project located in the semi-arid rangelands of western New South Wales, approximately 90 kilometers southwest of Cobar. The project was registered by Terra Carbon Pty Limited in July 2015 and covered a substantial area of 6,154 hectares. However, it was voluntarily revoked in December 2017 under Section 30 of the CFI Rule, a provision typically used when a proponent chooses to withdraw a project, often to restructure the aggregation or because the landholder has altered their land management strategy.

The project operated under the Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) methodology. This method is designed to regenerate permanent native forests on land where vegetation growth has been suppressed for at least ten years, typically by livestock or feral animals. To generate credits, the project would have required specific management activities such as installing new fencing, actively managing the timing and extent of grazing, and controlling feral goats and pigs to allow native vegetation to recover and reach forest cover density.

Environmentally, the region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with variable rainfall averaging around 350mm to 400mm annually. The landscape is dominated by the Cobar Peneplain, featuring red earth soils (often red kandosols or sandy loams) that support vegetation communities such as Mulga (Acacia aneura), Bimble Box, and White Cypress Pine. The primary land use in this remote area is extensive grazing for sheep and cattle, which historically suppressed the regrowth of these native woodlands.

An interesting aspect of this project is its naming convention. It was part of a larger portfolio by Terra Carbon known as the "Darling River Eco Corridor" series (with other projects numbered 18, 27, 33, etc.). While Project 21 was revoked, the broader initiative suggests a landscape-scale effort to create connectivity and restore biodiversity along the catchment of the Darling River system, with other numbered projects in the series continuing to operate.