Forico 2020 ERF Plantation Projects

Forico 2020 ERF Plantation Projects is a large-scale plantation forestry project distributed across multiple estates in Tasmania's key forestry regions. The project sites are located in the North West (near Devonport and Latrobe), North East (near Gladstone and Fingal), and Southern districts (near Dover), covering a total area of approximately 1,409 hectares. Registered in May 2020, the project is managed by Forico, Tasmania's largest private forest management company, on behalf of The Trust Company (Australia) Limited.

This project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2017. Specifically, it utilizes the "conversion from short-rotation to long-rotation" activity. This involves changing the management of a plantation forest, originally intended for short-term harvest (around 12–15 years) for woodchips or pulp, to a long-term regime (25+ years) to produce high-quality sawlogs. By extending the trees' growth period and performing silvicultural treatments like thinning, the forest sequesters significantly more carbon in the biomass, and the resulting timber products store that carbon for longer periods than paper products would.

The project areas are situated in some of Australia's most productive forestry landscapes. These regions are characterized by high reliable rainfall (often exceeding 800mm annually) and fertile soils, such as the rich red Ferrosols found in the North West and various clay-loams in the North East. The land use in these vicinities is predominantly a mix of intensive forestry, dairy farming, and cropping.

Forico is owned by a consortium of major institutional investors, including New Forests and UniSuper, and is widely recognized for its leadership in "Natural Capital" reporting. This project is part of a broader estate of over 170,000 hectares managed by Forico. By shifting to long-rotation sawlogs, the company aims not only to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) but also to supply structural timber for the construction industry, aligning with broader decarbonization goals in the built environment.