Riviera Carbon Project (Revoked)

The Riviera Carbon Project (Revoked) was a soil carbon sequestration project located approximately 8km east of Yorketown on the southern Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Registered in March 2017 by Corporate Carbon Solutions Pty Ltd, the project operated for seven years before being voluntarily revoked in March 2024. The project area was relatively small, covering just over 15 hectares, suggesting it may have been established as a pilot site or a trial within a larger farming operation.

The project operated under the Sequestering Carbon in Soils in Grazing Systems methodology. This method requires landholders to implement new management activities, such as converting crops to permanent pasture, altering stocking density, or using pasture cropping, to increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil. In this specific instance, the project activities involved converting continuous cropping land to permanent pasture and undertaking active grazing management to facilitate soil carbon build-up.

Regionally, the Yorke Peninsula is a major agricultural hub known for mixed farming, particularly grain cropping (wheat, barley, canola) and sheep grazing. The area typically experiences a Mediterranean climate with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers, with average annual rainfall in the Yorketown area hovering around 450-500mm. The local soil profile is characteristically diverse but dominated by calcareous loams and sandy soils over clay, which can be productive but require careful management to prevent erosion and salinity issues.

The project was revoked under Section 30 of the CFI Rule, which indicates a voluntary revocation requested by the proponent. This is a common occurrence in the scheme for early or small-scale projects, often due to the sale of the property, a change in commercial viability, or a strategic decision to exit the scheme before the end of the crediting period.