Messner Carbon Project 7

Messner Carbon Project 7 is a soil carbon sequestration project located in the Eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately 35 kilometers east of the town of Mukinbudin and north of Merredin. Registered on June 20, 2022, the project covers a substantial area of 1,228.31 hectares. It sits within the Shire of Westonia, a region heavily reliant on broadacre agriculture. The project is likely part of a larger aggregation of landholdings, as indicated by the existence of other similarly named projects (e.g., Messner Carbon Project 1 and 15) registered by the same proponent nearby.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models) Methodology Determination 2021. This method allows landholders to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by changing management practices to store more carbon in the soil. The specific activity listed for this project involves applying synthetic or non-synthetic fertilisers to address material soil deficiencies. This suggests a strategy of boosting plant productivity, and consequently root biomass and soil carbon inputs, by correcting nutrient imbalances in the soil profile.

The local environment in this part of the Western Australian Wheatbelt is characterized by a semi-arid, Mediterranean climate with low rainfall, typically averaging between 300mm to 350mm annually. The landscape is dominated by dryland cropping (wheat, barley, canola) and sheep grazing. Soils in the area are often ancient and weathered, consisting of sandy loams, gravels, or duplex soils (sand over clay) which can be naturally low in nutrients, making the nutrient-correction strategy particularly relevant.

A notable aspect of this project is its proponent, Agriprove Solutions Pty Ltd, which is Australia's largest developer of soil carbon projects. Agriprove typically utilizes a "hybrid" approach allowed by the 2021 methodology, combining physical soil core measurement with digital modeling to reduce the compliance costs of generating credits. The segmentation of the Messner aggregation into multiple smaller projects (like Project 7) is a common administrative strategy to manage baselining schedules and credit issuance more flexibly across a large farming operation.