AKD-1

AKD-1 is a plantation forestry project located in South West Victoria, spanning the Corangamite, Glenelg, and Southern Grampians Shires, with project areas near the regional centres of Colac, Hamilton, and Casterton. It was registered in May 2020 and covers 930.05 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects involve establishing a new plantation forest, maintaining an existing one, or converting a short-rotation plantation into a long-rotation plantation forest. The standard requirements dictate that the plantation must be managed for the commercial harvesting of wood products, which extends the life cycle of the trees and ensures carbon is sequestered for a longer period in both the forest biomass and the resulting timber products.

The South West Victoria region, often referred to as the Green Triangle, is highly regarded for its commercial forestry operations, as well as dairy, sheep, and cattle farming. The area is classified as high rainfall and features diverse soils that generally consist of volcanic basalts, clay loams, and sandy loams, which provide ideal growing conditions for both native flora and commercial radiata pine.

The project is operated by Associated Kiln Driers Pty Ltd (AKD Softwoods), which is a 100% Australian-owned timber processing company and Australia's largest softwood sawmiller, founded in Colac in 1955. This specific project sequesters carbon by establishing new plantation forests and converting existing short-rotation plantations to long-rotation forests for commercial harvesting. Extra land areas were added to the project during 2022 following a restructure, and the project name was officially updated from "Landari AKD 1" to "AKD-1" in March 2026.