Darling River Eco Corridor 8

Darling River Eco Corridor 8 is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 80km northwest of Bourke in the rangelands of Western New South Wales. Registered in April 2016, the project covers a substantial area of 17,644 hectares within the Bourke Shire Council region. The project is operated by Terra Carbon Pty Limited, with GreenCollar acting as the carbon service provider, facilitating the regeneration of native woodland ecosystems.

The project operates under the Human-Induced Regeneration methodology, which involves suppressing activities that prevent vegetation from growing. In this specific instance, the project manages the timing and extent of livestock grazing and controls feral animals (such as goats) to allow native vegetation to recover. This transition shifts the land use from conventional uncontrolled grazing to a model that prioritizes forest regeneration while often maintaining compatible, low-intensity agricultural production.

The region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with variable rainfall, supporting vegetation types typical of the Mulga lands and bimble box woodlands. The soils in this area are predominantly red earths and sandy loams over clay, which are prone to erosion when vegetation cover is removed. By allowing the native forest to regenerate, the project not only sequesters carbon but also helps stabilize these fragile soils and restore habitat for local biodiversity.

An interesting note about this project is its connection to major corporate buyers; corporate reports indicate that Woodside Energy has purchased Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated by this specific project to offset their Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Additionally, the project is part of a larger "Eco Corridor" initiative aggregated by GreenCollar, which aims to create contiguous zones of protected and regenerating forest across the Darling River catchment.