Carbon + Biodiversity ID 1216

Carbon + Biodiversity ID 1216 is an environmental planting project located near the locality of Stuart Town, approximately 40km southeast of Wellington in the Central West region of New South Wales. Registered in June 2022, the project covers roughly 304 hectares of land that was previously used for agricultural purposes, such as grazing or cropping.

The project operates under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings-FullCAM methodology. This involves establishing permanent native forests by planting a mix of local native tree and shrub species at densities sufficient to achieve forest canopy cover (typically at least 200 stems per hectare). The goal is to sequester carbon in the growing biomass while simultaneously improving local ecosystems.

Regionally, the Central West Slopes area is characterized by a temperate to semi-arid climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 600mm. The landscape typically features red-brown earth soils, including clay loams and Chromosols, which support a mix of agricultural productivity and remnant woodland vegetation.

A key feature of this project is its participation in the Australian Government's "Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot" (likely Round 2, given the 2022 registration). This pilot program rewards farmers for increasing on-farm biodiversity by providing cash payments for the biodiversity stewardship of the plantings, in addition to the Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated by the carbon sequestration. This dual-revenue model incentivizes high-quality, diverse habitat creation rather than simple monocultures.