Rangelands Project

Rangelands Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located approximately 25km north of the town of Adavale in South West Queensland. It was registered in April 2016 and covers a significant area of 28,659.31 ha.

Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) projects involve establishing permanent native forests by changing agricultural land management practices to promote natural regrowth. Standard methodology requirements dictate that the land must have been historically cleared of vegetation and regrowth actively suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project's commencement. Proponents achieve regeneration by ceasing the mechanical or chemical destruction of regrowth and by carefully managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing to allow young trees to reach a forest canopy.

The region around Adavale is dominated by large-scale pastoral operations, primarily focusing on beef cattle and sheep grazing on native rangelands. The local environment is classified as semi-arid, typically receiving a highly variable average annual rainfall of around 390mm. The dominant soil types across these western mulga lands consist of hard red earths, sandy loams, and alluvial soils along floodplains.

Interestingly, this project was originally registered under the name "Climate Friendly Aggregation Project No. 1" before a formal variation was lodged in February 2020 to rename it to the Rangelands Project. The project establishes permanent native forests through assisted regeneration from resilient in-situ seed sources, including rootstock and lignotubers. In 2022, the participant structure was officially updated to include members of the Crichton family alongside the original proponent, Corporate Carbon Solutions Pty Ltd.