Gippsland 2024 Carbon Project

The Gippsland 2024 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project established by Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP), one of Australia's largest private timber plantation companies. While the project name suggests a focus on the Gippsland region, the registered area appears to cover a dispersed aggregation of HVP’s estate. Specific coordinates indicate sites near Traralgon and Yarram in the Latrobe Valley and South Gippsland, as well as locations as far west as Beaufort (near Ballarat) and north-east near Tallangatta. The region is predominantly utilized for intensive forestry and dairy farming, taking advantage of the area's high productivity.

Registered in June 2024, the project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2022. The specific activity undertaken is "avoided conversion," which generates carbon credits by maintaining a plantation forest on land that was legally permitted and viable to be converted to non-forested use (such as grazing or cropping) following harvest. By committing to re-establish the plantation instead of converting the land to agriculture, the project maintains significant carbon stocks in the landscape.

The environmental conditions across the project areas are generally characterized by cool temperate climates with reliable rainfall, typically exceeding 700mm annually, which is essential for the commercial viability of Pinus radiata and Eucalypt plantations. The soil types vary across the dispersed sites, ranging from the fertile, deep Red Ferrosols found in the Strzelecki Ranges to the clay-loams of the Central Highlands and sandy soils near the Gippsland coast.

Following its initial registration of approximately 672 hectares, the project has undergone rapid expansion. Regulatory records indicate a series of variations throughout 2025 (in April, July, August, September, and October), suggesting a rolling inclusion of plantation coupes into the carbon project as they are harvested and re-committed to forestry. This project aligns with HVP's broader stewardship and Net Zero goals, leveraging their 240,000-hectare estate to participate in the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme.