Iwatani Forests Carbon Farming Project

Iwatani Forests Carbon Farming Project is a plantation forestry project located approximately 6km southeast of Nannup and 280km south of Perth in the Blackwood region of Western Australia. It was registered in September 2023 and covers an area of 84.18 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects involve capturing and storing carbon by establishing new plantation forests or altering the management of existing ones, such as converting a short-rotation plantation to a long-rotation plantation. Under the methodology, these projects must be established and maintained for the commercial harvesting of wood products.

The Nannup area is well known for its commercial timber operations, agricultural grazing, and naturally forested landscapes. The region is considered a high rainfall zone, receiving over 800mm of rain annually. Soils in this area generally consist of loamy duplexes, primarily loam and clay loam over clay, with occasional pockets of gravel and discontinuous granite.

This specific project sequesters carbon by establishing and maintaining a newly planted forest, as well as converting an existing short-rotation plantation forest into a long-rotation forest for commercial timber harvesting. Interestingly, the project proponent, Iwatani Forests Pty Ltd, is a relatively newly formed subsidiary of Iwatani Australia Pty Ltd, which is wholly owned by the Japanese Iwatani Corporation. While historically known in Western Australia for their mineral sands mining operations through subsidiaries like Doral Mineral Sands, this project represents a unique expansion into carbon farming and commercial forestry for the corporate group.