Native woodland regeneration project WOO21

Native woodland regeneration project WOO21 is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located in the Mulga Lands bioregion of South West Queensland. The project area spans 25,876 hectares and is situated approximately 115km south of Charleville and 90km west of Bollon. Registered on August 27, 2021, the project operates on land traditionally used for pastoral grazing, specifically for sheep and cattle, which is the dominant land use in the surrounding Balonne and Paroo Shires.

The project utilizes the Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) methodology, which involves regenerating native forests on land where vegetation has been historically suppressed. Key project activities include the cessation of mechanical clearing and chemical destruction of regrowth, alongside the active management of grazing pressure (such as controlling feral goats or managing livestock timing) to allow native species to regenerate. To generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), the project must demonstrate that the regenerating forest is on track to achieve a canopy cover of at least 20% and a height of 2 meters.

Environmentally, the site is characterized by the semi-arid climate of the Mulga Lands, experiencing highly variable, summer-dominant rainfall averaging between 300mm and 450mm annually. The landscape typically features flat to undulating plains with red earth soils (kandosols) and sandy loams. The native vegetation regenerating in this area is likely dominated by Mulga (Acacia aneura) woodlands, often intermixed with Poplar Box and other eucalypt species resilient to drought conditions.

The project is developed with the involvement of Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM), a prominent Australian carbon offset provider. The involvement of TEM suggests that credits generated from this project may be utilized for corporate voluntary offsetting portfolios in addition to potentially participating in the Commonwealth's safeguard mechanism. The project proponent, Carbon Regeneration No.1 Pty Ltd, appears to be a special purpose vehicle (SPV) structure commonly used to manage specific carbon assets.