Pondera Soil Carbon Project

The Pondera Soil Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located approximately 15 kilometers southeast of Adelong in the Snowy Valleys region of New South Wales. Registered in February 2025, the project covers a land area of roughly 743 hectares. The project site sits within the South West Slopes bioregion, an area traditionally characterized by cattle and sheep grazing, as well as forestry operations in the higher elevations near Batlow.

This project operates under the 2021 Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration methodology, which rewards landholders for increasing the amount of carbon stored in their soil. To achieve this, the proponents, Atlas Agri Solutions and Pondera Pastoral Company, are implementing changes to land management practices. Specifically, the project activities involve altering the stocking rate, duration, or intensity of grazing. This approach is often paired with grazing management software to optimize ground cover and root growth, thereby sequestering more atmospheric carbon into the soil profile.

The environment in the Adelong and Snowy Valleys district typically experiences moderate to high rainfall, averaging between 800mm and 1,000mm annually, which is favorable for building soil carbon. The soils in the region are generally acidic and include Red Chromosols and granitic soil types, which can be highly responsive to improved management practices such as rotational grazing. Pondera Pastoral Company appears to be a local cattle grazing enterprise, while Atlas Agri Solutions acts as the project developer, leveraging their background in grazing management technology (MaiaGrazing).