Darling River Eco Corridor #37

Darling River Eco Corridor #37 is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located in the upper catchments of the Darling River in western New South Wales, approximately 100km west-southwest of the major regional town of Cobar. It was registered on May 24, 2018, and currently spans a project area of 13,512.30 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) projects involve establishing permanent, even-aged native forests on land where vegetation was previously cleared and natural regrowth has been actively suppressed for at least 10 years. Rather than using manual environmental planting, this methodology relies entirely on assisted natural regeneration from in-situ seed sources, rootstock, and lignotubers. The standard requirements dictate that landholders must implement new land management practices to remove the historical suppressors to regrowth; for this specific project, those activities involve managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing, alongside the humane management and culling of feral animals such as goats.

The surrounding Cobar and broader Darling River catchment region is traditionally utilized for extensive rangeland grazing of sheep, cattle, and feral goat harvesting. The local environment is characterised by a semi-arid climate with low and highly variable rainfall averaging under 400mm annually. The typical soil landscape in this catchment consists of red earths (Kandosols) and red sandy loams on the ridges and flats, with heavier, cracking clay soils (Vertosols) found in the low-lying claypans and floodplains.

An interesting note about this project is that it is part of a massive carbon farming aggregation known as the "Darling River Eco-Corridor," pioneered and managed by Terra Carbon, a subsidiary of GreenCollar. This broader suite of projects covers over 150,000 hectares of rural land, intending to create a contiguous zone of protected native habitat that improves biodiversity connectivity and ecosystem resilience across the Western Division of NSW while providing diversified income streams for graziers. Additionally, project registry records show a variation occurred on January 20, 2021, which removed specific ineligible or non-viable land areas from the project's originally registered boundary.