Darling River Conservation Initiative Site #4

Darling River Conservation Initiative Site #4 is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located in the Cobar local government area, approximately 140km southwest of Cobar in western New South Wales. It was registered in November 2018 and covers an area of 21,396.39 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) projects involve establishing permanent, even-aged native forests by assisting the natural regeneration of native trees from in-situ seed sources, including rootstock and lignotubers. A standard requirement for this methodology is that the project land must have been previously cleared of native vegetation, and that regrowth was actively suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project commencing.

The Cobar region is well known for extensive pastoral operations and broadacre rangeland grazing, primarily for sheep, goats, and cattle. The environment is classified as semi-arid, experiencing hot summers and variable, low rainfall. The landscape typically features red earth soils, such as red kandosols and lithosols, as well as sandy loams, which support native vegetation like Mulga and Bimble Box.

To achieve the desired forest regeneration, project activities focus on altering land management practices. This includes actively managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing and controlling feral animals in a humane manner. By doing so, grazing pressure on emerging native vegetation is significantly reduced.

This project is operated by Terra Carbon Pty Limited, which serves as a subsidiary of the GreenCollar Group, one of Australia's largest environmental market developers and investors. Site #4 is part of a much larger aggregation of sites under the "Darling River Conservation Initiative". This landscape-scale effort aims to create conservation corridors across the pastoral districts of western New South Wales, while also providing landholders with valuable income diversification through carbon credits.