Freemans Forest Community Carbon Pilot

Freemans Forest Community Carbon Pilot is a small-scale environmental planting project located in the Atherton Tablelands region of Far North Queensland, specifically adjoining the Lake Eacham National Park near Yungaburra. Registered in March 2017, the project covers a pilot area of just 1.66 hectares. The site is situated within the Freemans Forest Nature Refuge, a property bequeathed to the South Endeavour Trust by the late Ian Freeman for conservation purposes.

The project operates under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings-FullCAM methodology. This method requires the planting of native tree species, in this case, a high-diversity mix designed to mimic local rainforest ecosystems, on land previously cleared for agriculture. The goal is to establish permanent forest cover, calculated using the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) to estimate sequestration.

The Atherton Tablelands region is characterized by high rainfall and fertile volcanic (basalt) soils, historically supporting dairy farming, grazing, and cropping. This specific project was established as a strategic trial by the community group TREAT (Trees for the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands) and Terrain NRM. Its primary purpose was to document the logistics, costs, and administrative hurdles of carbon farming to determine if small-scale biodiversity plantings could be economically viable for other local landholders.