Environmental Plantings in NPWS Reserves - Pilot Project stage 2

Environmental Plantings in NPWS Reserves - Pilot Project stage 2 is an environmental planting project spread across six distinct National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) reserves in New South Wales. The specific sites are located roughly 80km east of Hillston, 15km south of Balranald, 40km north of Lithgow, 15km east of Kempsey, 45km east of Grafton, and 60km north of Inverell. Registered in February 2017, the project covers a total area of 813.96 hectares.

Environmental planting projects under the FullCAM methodology involve establishing permanent plantings of a mix of native or mallee tree species. These projects require planting at a sufficient stocking density, typically at least 200 stems per hectare, to ensure the forest achieves a minimum of 20% crown cover and reaches at least two meters in height at maturity.

Due to the geographically dispersed nature of the sites, the environmental conditions vary significantly. The western sites near Hillston and Balranald are in semi-arid environments with low rainfall and predominantly sandy loam and red earth soils. Conversely, the eastern sites near Kempsey and Grafton reside in high-rainfall coastal zones featuring alluvial clays and coastal sands, while the tablelands sites near Lithgow and Ashford experience moderate rainfall with granitic and basaltic soils. Prior to being incorporated into the NPWS reserves, the general land use across these regions was largely agricultural, primarily supporting cattle and sheep grazing operations for at least five years before the project commenced.

This project is part of a larger pilot scheme originally run by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure alongside CO2 Australia Pty Ltd, designed to rehabilitate degraded former farmland. In December 2025, the project’s main participant role was officially transferred to the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). Over its lifetime, the project boundaries were varied in 2018 and 2019 to refine the registered areas by adding and removing land. Additionally, the project operates under an active Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC982056) to deliver a fixed volume of 69,300 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the Commonwealth over a 10-year delivery period.