2025 WA Schedule 3 Carbon Project

2025 WA Schedule 3 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, spanning across the Albany, Cranbrook, and Plantagenet local government areas. It sits roughly 50 to 80km north and inland from the major coastal city of Albany, stretching near agricultural towns such as Mount Barker and Frankland River. It was registered in February 2025 and currently covers 3,545.09 hectares, following a project variation in July 2025 that added new areas to the carbon estimation area.

The Plantation Forestry methodology (specifically Schedule 3: Avoided Conversion) involves preventing an existing or recently harvested commercial plantation forest from being permanently cleared and transitioned into non-forested land. To earn carbon credits, a project must demonstrate that the land was otherwise going to be converted to agricultural use. By continuing the plantation cycle and maintaining forest cover at commercial stocking densities, the project avoids the heavy emissions associated with land clearing and continues to actively sequester carbon.

The Great Southern region is a major agricultural hub known for broadacre cropping (such as wheat, barley, and canola), livestock grazing, and extensive commercial timber operations (predominantly blue gum and pine). The area features a Mediterranean climate with reliable, moderate-to-high winter rainfall, which is highly conducive to both agriculture and forestry. The soils across these local government areas typically consist of sandy duplexes, gravelly ironstone, and lateritic podzols.

Interestingly, the proponent, Forestry Investment Trust (FIT), is managed by global forestry asset manager New Forests. Historically, large tracts of mature blue gum plantations in this specific region were harvested and reverted to row cropping or pasture due to booming agricultural demand, with FIT itself having converted thousands of hectares of Western Australian land to row crops since 2013. This carbon project represents a strategic shift, utilizing the ACCU scheme to make retaining the plantation economically viable against competing agricultural land uses. The project has a nominated permanence period of 25 years, with the crediting period ending in 2050.