Catchment Conservation Alliance - Southern Rivers Initiative Site #2

Catchment Conservation Alliance - Southern Rivers Initiative Site #2 is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located in the remote Paroo Shire of South West Queensland, positioned near the New South Wales border and approximately 100km south of Cunnamulla. Registered in March 2017, the project spans a massive 28,320.84 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects generate carbon credits by implementing changes in land management practices that allow native forests to regenerate naturally. Instead of manually planting tubestock, proponents change on-ground practices to remove vegetation suppressors, such as livestock overgrazing or feral animals. The standard requirement is that the managed area must have the capacity to attain genuine forest cover, which is defined as native trees reaching at least 2 metres in height and achieving a minimum of 20% crown cover at maturity.

The Paroo Shire and the encompassing Mulga Lands bioregion are primarily utilised for extensive sheep and cattle grazing. The region is characterised by a semi-arid climate with highly variable and unpredictable low rainfall, typically averaging between 300mm and 450mm annually. Environmental conditions can be harsh, with soils generally consisting of infertile red sandy earths and plains that naturally support mulga woodlands and hardy native shrubs.

To facilitate forest recovery, this project focuses specifically on managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing alongside the humane management of feral animals. These activities are designed to establish permanent native forests through assisted regeneration from in-situ seed sources, which include surviving rootstock and lignotubers. Notably, this regeneration is taking place on land that had previously been cleared of vegetation and where natural regrowth was suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project's commencement. Furthermore, the project is committed to a 100-year permanence period, ensuring the long-term conservation of the landscape, and it has even been referenced in national-scale academic studies assessing satellite-detectable vegetation recovery across Australian carbon sequestration projects.