Advance Carbon Project

The Advance Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration initiative located near the locality of Cobbora, approximately 18km southeast of Dunedoo in the Central West region of New South Wales. Registered in December 2017, the project covers 419 hectares of agricultural land managed by Robert Belfield in partnership with the proponent, Corporate Carbon Solutions.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (Sequestering Carbon in Soils in Grazing Systems) Methodology Determination 2014. This methodology rewards landholders for increasing Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks through changes in land management. Specific activities for this project include rejuvenating pastures and altering grazing patterns to improve ground cover and root mass, which in turn draws more carbon from the atmosphere into the soil. The project's crediting period runs until May 2044, requiring long-term maintenance of the stored carbon.

The Dunedoo and Cobbora region is situated on the Central West Slopes, an area characterized by mixed farming, primarily sheep and cattle grazing combined with cereal cropping. The landscape typically experiences a temperate climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 620mm. Soils in this vicinity are commonly Red Chromosols or sandy to clay loams, which are productive but can be susceptible to structure decline if over-grazed. A variation to the project area was actioned in November 2020, removing certain land segments, a common practice in soil carbon projects to exclude areas that do not meet baseline testing requirements or are unsuitable for the specific management activities.