Water Corporation Carbon Plantations

Water Corporation Carbon Plantations is a plantation forestry project located across the South West region of Western Australia, featuring sites near Boddington (approximately 120km southeast of Perth) and McAlinden. It was registered in August 2021 and covers 2056.48 ha.

Plantation forestry projects sequester carbon by establishing and maintaining new plantation forests for the commercial harvesting of wood products, or by avoiding the conversion of existing plantations to non-forested land. These methods standardly require planting tree species at specific commercial stocking densities and maintaining the site for ongoing commercial timber harvest rotations.

The Boddington and McAlinden areas are situated in a region widely known for commercial forestry, sheep and cattle grazing, and mining operations. The environment features a Mediterranean climate with high, winter-dominated rainfall, and the soils generally consist of lateritic ironstone gravels, sandy loams, and clays.

This project was set up by the WA Water Corporation in partnership with the Forest Products Commission (FPC). It aims to generate an estimated 400,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) over an 18-year period to offset the utility's operational footprint, aligning with its broader goal to become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2035. The project updated its methodology from the 2017 to the 2022 Determination in July 2022, and adjusted its boundaries by adding land in May 2023 and removing certain areas in February 2026.