FIT WA 2026 Carbon Project

FIT WA 2026 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project located across the Great Southern and South West regions of Western Australia, spanning the local government areas of Albany, Boyup Brook, Cranbrook, Kojonup, and Plantagenet. It was registered in September 2025 and covers an area of 1,435.98 hectares.

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2022 allows projects to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by storing additional carbon in commercial plantation forests. This specific project sequesters carbon through two main activities: establishing and maintaining a new plantation forest, and converting an existing short-rotation plantation into a long-rotation forest for the commercial harvesting of wood products.

The Great Southern region is traditionally dominated by dryland agriculture, focusing on mixed grain cropping and livestock grazing such as sheep and cattle, though commercial tree farming and viticulture have increasingly become major alternative land uses. The environment features a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot, dry summers and moderate to high winter-dominant rainfall. The region's soils are predominantly ironstone gravels (often with clayey subsoils) and sandy duplexes, which can sometimes lead to waterlogging in lower-lying terrain.

The project is managed by PF Olsen (Aus) Pty Limited on behalf of the Forestry Investment Trust (FIT), which oversees a massive estate of certified Eucalyptus globulus (blue gum) plantations across Australia. An interesting aspect of the FIT estate is its ongoing partnership with Birdlife Australia, established in 2015 to monitor regional biodiversity. Surveys have recorded over 70 bird species in their Western Australian properties, demonstrating that these hardwood plantations and their remnant vegetation patches provide important habitat and refuges for wildlife in heavily fragmented agricultural landscapes.