FIT 2020 Carbon Projects ERF

FIT 2020 Carbon Projects ERF is a plantation forestry project located across the Glenelg and West Wimmera Shires in western Victoria, near towns such as Edenhope and Casterton towards the South Australian border. It was registered in March 2020 and initially covered an area of 3,619.44 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects involve generating carbon credits by establishing new plantation forests or converting an existing short-rotation plantation to a long-rotation forest. By increasing the time trees remain in the ground before harvesting, more carbon is sequestered in the forest biomass. This specific project carries out both the conversion of existing short-rotation plantations to long-term rotations and the establishment of new plantations for the commercial harvesting of wood products.

The West Wimmera and Glenelg area is part of the highly productive "Green Triangle" region. While the area is historically known for sheep grazing and broadacre cropping, it has increasingly become a major hub for commercial timber operations. The region experiences a temperate climate that ranges from high rainfall in the southern Glenelg area to more semi-arid, drier conditions moving north into the Wimmera. Soils vary significantly, ranging from ancient sandy dune systems with heavy clay swales to highly fertile alluvial and volcanic soils further south.

The project proponent, The Trust Company (Australia) Limited as trustee for Forestry Investment Trust (FIT), acts on behalf of an investment vehicle managed by New Forests. The Forestry Investment Trust is an iconic large-scale hardwood and softwood estate spanning over 110,000 hectares across Australia. Since its original registration, this specific carbon project has continued to grow, undergoing official variations to add additional land areas to the project in February 2021 and May 2022.