Forest Carbon CoOp

Forest Carbon CoOp is a commercial plantation forestry project registered in April 2020. Unlike single-site projects, this initiative operates as an aggregation, covering approximately 402 hectares across dispersed locations in Tasmania and regional Victoria. The project sites are situated in diverse agricultural zones, ranging from the high-rainfall forestry regions of the Huon Valley and Central Coast in Tasmania to the grazing and cropping districts near Ararat (Pyrenees Shire) and Wangaratta in Victoria.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2017. This methodology allows for the generation of carbon credits through commercial forestry activities. Specifically, this project involves two key activities: establishing new plantation forests and converting existing short-rotation plantations (typically harvested for woodchips) into long-rotation plantations (managed for sawlogs). By extending the growth period of the trees, the project increases the average volume of carbon stored in the landscape over the long term compared to the previous management regime.

Given the geographic spread, the environmental conditions vary significantly across the project area. The Tasmanian sites, particularly in the North West and South, are characterized by cool temperate climates and fertile ferrosols or dermosols, which historically support intensive forestry and dairy operations. In contrast, the Victorian sites near Wangaratta and Ararat experience a drier temperate climate with soils ranging from clays to loams, typically utilized for sheep grazing and broadacre cropping. The project has undergone multiple variations between 2020 and 2022 to include additional land, reflecting its cooperative structure where WeAct Pty Ltd aggregates multiple landowners into a single carbon project.