Davis Bentley Planting Project

Davis Bentley Planting Project is a permanent environmental planting project located in the locality of Bentley, approximately 18km northwest of the major regional city of Lismore in Northern New South Wales. Registered in September 2025, the project covers 165.01 hectares of land in the Northern Rivers region, an area traditionally known for beef cattle grazing, dairy farming, and increasingly, macadamia and avocado horticulture.

The project operates under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings-FullCAM 2024 methodology. This involves establishing a mix of native tree and shrub species that are indigenous to the local area. As an environmental planting, the vegetation is not intended for harvest; instead, it is designed to establish permanent forest cover to sequester carbon and enhance local biodiversity. The planting density must be sufficient to achieve forest cover, typically defined as reaching a height of at least 2 meters and a crown cover of 20%, with abatement calculated using the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM).

Environmentally, the Bentley region is situated in a high-rainfall subtropical zone, often receiving over 1,200mm of rain annually. The landscape is characterized by rolling hills and fertile volcanic soils, specifically Red Ferrosols (Krasnozems), which historically supported the "Big Scrub" lowland subtropical rainforest. The project likely aims to restore some of this original ecosystem structure. Notably, the Bentley community has a strong history of environmental stewardship, having famously hosted the "Bentley Blockade" in 2014 to protect the land from invasive gas mining, which aligns with the conservation values of this carbon project.