Freemans Forest Community Carbon Pilot

Freemans Forest Community Carbon Pilot is an environmental planting project located in the Atherton Tablelands, approximately 80km inland from Cairns in Far North Queensland. It was registered in March 2017 and covers an area of 1.66ha.

Environmental planting projects under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings methodology involve planting native trees at a density of at least 200 stems per hectare to achieve a permanent forest canopy cover. This specific pilot project involves establishing permanent plantings of mallee eucalypt tree species on land that was predominantly used for agricultural purposes for at least five years prior to project commencement.

The Atherton Tablelands area is well known for its intensive dairy farming, beef cattle grazing, and diverse horticulture. The region is considered high rainfall, often receiving between 1,500mm and 3,000mm of precipitation annually, and the soils are highly fertile, red volcanic types.

Interestingly, the project's proponent, David Alan Hudson, was previously involved in another local carbon farming initiative called the Cloudland Connectivity and Carbon project. That earlier project was revoked by the Clean Energy Regulator in February 2020, resulting in the proponent being required to relinquish 105 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Additionally, the Freemans Forest project was specifically noted in a 2017 Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications inquiry regarding sequestration offset projects.