Otway Silva 2025_2 Carbon Project

Otway Silva 2025_2 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project located across the Murrindindi and Strathbogie Shires in central Victoria, roughly 100 to 150 km north-east of Melbourne near the towns of Yea and Euroa. It was registered in August 2025 and covers an area of 1,192.78 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects generate carbon credits by establishing a new plantation forest or avoiding the conversion of an existing or harvested plantation to non-forested land. Standard requirements usually involve planting trees at a sufficient stocking density to achieve true forest cover, which generally means reaching at least 2 metres in height and 20% canopy cover at maturity, while managing the forest specifically for the commercial harvesting of wood products.

The central Victorian region, including the Strathbogie Ranges, is commonly used for livestock grazing like cattle and sheep, broadacre cropping, and commercial forestry. The environment has a temperate climate with moderate to high rainfall, and typical soils in this region include duplex clays, granitic sandy loams, and some basalt-derived soils.

This project sequesters carbon by keeping existing plantations that were at risk of being converted back to agricultural land, as well as establishing new plantation areas for commercial wood product harvesting. Notably, the project proponent, Otway Silva Pty Limited, is an entity backed by MEAG, the asset management arm of the German insurance group Munich Re. In 2022, MEAG acquired a 17,000-hectare plantation estate from Midway Limited for $154.1 million, committing a further $200 million for the development of new hardwood plantations in the region. Midway Plantations Pty Ltd continues to act as the project agent and manager, leveraging its extensive expertise as one of Australia's major woodfibre processors.