Lake Echo (Revoked)

Lake Echo (Revoked) is a native forest protection project located near Lake Echo in the Central Highlands of Tasmania, approximately 140km northwest of Hobart. It was registered in August 2017 and covers 17.21ha.

The project was registered under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Designated Verified Carbon Standard Projects) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology allows projects that were previously registered and validated under the international Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) prior to June 2014 to transition into the Australian regulatory scheme to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The core activity of this specific project involved protecting native eucalypt forests situated on private land from commercial timber harvesting.

The Central Highlands region of Tasmania is characterised by a cool climate with moderate to high rainfall. The local environment is dominated by expansive native forests, alpine vegetation, and natural waterways, supported primarily by kurosol, dermosol, and organosol soil types. Land use in this rugged area heavily revolves around hydro-electricity generation, forestry operations, nature conservation, and isolated sheep grazing on the lower slopes.

Interestingly, this carbon project was exceptionally short-lived. In September 2017, barely a month after registration, an area of land was transferred to the Lake Echo project from another "Forests Alive" project. Following this variation, the project proponent, Forests Alive Pty Ltd, voluntarily relinquished 56 Kyoto ACCUs as a precursor to the project's total voluntary revocation later that same month. Furthermore, public environmental reviews for the nearby Cattle Hill Wind Farm note that wind turbines were approved to be constructed near Lake Echo within parts of a related Forests Alive carbon project, which required specific modifications to the land's conservation covenants to allow for the infrastructure.