FIT 2023 Carbon Project

FIT 2023 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project located approximately 35km south-east of Boyup Brook in the South West region of Western Australia. The project spans across the local government areas of the Shire of Boyup Brook and the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup. It was registered in January 2023 and covers an area of 1,654.16 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects under the 2022 determination involve sequestering carbon by establishing new plantation forests, converting short-rotation plantations to long-rotation ones, or transitioning to continuous cover forestry. The standard requirements for these projects involve planting and managing commercial tree species at a density and scale suitable for the commercial harvesting of wood products, while maintaining the forest for a nominated permanence period, which in this case is typically 25 years.

The Boyup Brook and Donnybrook-Balingup areas are well known for their robust agriculture, including sheep and cattle grazing, as well as extensive commercial forestry operations and natural jarrah and marri forests. The region experiences a Mediterranean climate with moderate to high winter-dominated rainfall, feeding into river systems like the Blackwood River. Soils in the area typically consist of ironstone gravels and lateritic crusts on the ridges, shifting to yellow and grey sandy loams and leached sands in the wide valley floors.

This specific project sequesters carbon through two main activities: establishing and maintaining a new plantation forest, and converting an existing short-rotation plantation to a long-rotation forest for commercial harvesting. The proponent, The Trust Company (Australia) Limited as trustee for Forestry Investment Trust (FIT), is part of a massive eucalyptus plantation estate spanning over 260,000 hectares across Australia, managed by the asset management firm New Forests and property manager PF Olsen Australia. The Forestry Investment Trust estate is largely backed by major global institutional investors, such as the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), highlighting the growing integration of sustainable forestry, timber product supply, and large-scale corporate investment in Australia.