Sustainable Timber Tasmania Plantation Conversion Project

The Sustainable Timber Tasmania Plantation Conversion Project is a plantation forestry initiative located across dispersed sites in the North East region of Tasmania. The project areas are situated within the Dorset and George Town municipalities, with key sites located approximately 15km west of Scottsdale near Springfield, and others extending east towards the coastal localities of Ansons Bay and Musselroe Bay. Registered on 14 March 2019, the project covers a total area of approximately 234 hectares.

This project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2017. Specifically, it involves the conversion of existing plantations from a short-rotation (pulpwood) regime to a long-rotation (sawlog) regime. By thinning the forest and extending the harvest age, typically extending the rotation by at least 10 years beyond the standard pulpwood cycle, the trees grow larger and store carbon for a longer duration. This method generates Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) based on the incremental increase in average carbon stocks sequestered in the trees and wood products compared to the baseline short-rotation scenario.

The North East of Tasmania is a prime forestry and agricultural region characterized by a cool-temperate climate and reliable rainfall, generally exceeding 700mm to 1000mm annually in the productive hinterlands. The landscape features a mix of grazing, dairy farming, and extensive softwood and hardwood plantations. The soils in the primary forestry zones near Scottsdale are typically fertile Ferrosols (red basalt soils) known for their depth and structure, while the sites closer to the north-east coast (Ansons Bay) often sit on sandier Podzols or Tenosols derived from granite or sedimentary geology.

The proponent, Forestry Tasmania (trading as Sustainable Timber Tasmania), is the Tasmanian Government Business Enterprise responsible for managing public production forests. This project represents a strategic shift toward higher-value timber products, utilizing carbon finance to support the longer investment period required for sawlog production. CO2 Australia acts as a participant, likely providing administrative or technical services for the carbon aggregation. A variation noted in November 2021 involved the removal of certain areas from the project, a common compliance procedure when specific land parcels are harvested early, sold, or deemed unsuitable for the long-rotation regime.