Minding the Carbon Store offered Queensland landholders with broadscale clearing permits for remnant vegetation sufficient financial incentive to forgo the land development opportunity and retain forest and woodland vegetation.

Overview
Minding the Carbon Store was an innovative project which paid farmers for contributing to Australia’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2004/5, 500,000 hectares of clearing permits were issued by the Queensland Government under a legislated “cap” on further clearing Broadscale clearing of remnant vegetation in Qld was banned from the end of 2006.

Reducing this amount of clearing and having the emission reductions verified by a recognised government authority allowed us to provide “carbon credits” for purchase, mainly by large companies.

Our experience in running thet project has been that the sale price of the credits to industry is sufficient to provide many landholders a premium above the likely returns from clearing, especially where the landuse following clearing was grazing.

Who ran the project?
The Carbon Pool Pty Ltd is an Australian company based in Northern New South Wales. The company combines individual landholder’s stored carbon into a larger pool, an accepted method for both managing risk and providing services in the emerging carbon trading industry.

Our carbon measurement and accounting methodologies comply with internationally accepted best practice, and we work within the legislation and under the approval and verification standards of Australian State and Commonwealth governments.

What were the legal arrangements?
The Carbon Pool Pty Ltd buys a “carbon right” in respect of the carbon in vegetation on the land. This right is then registered on the land title such that it will bind future owners. Vesting of the “carbon right” is through a contract which ensures that the land cannot be cleared and will be used only for sustainable grazing for the Term of the contract (120 years).

Who was eligible?
Queensland landholders who had broadscale clearing permits for remnant vegetation. Term leasehold land was not currently eligible.

Why sell your carbon rights?
- Requires no significant capital outlay.
- One-off payment in full for transfer of Carbon Rights.
- The Company provides all required services (except for your legal, accounting or other professional advisors).
- Land remains available for sustainable grazing with current vegetation retained.

Summary of the sale process
1. Contact the company or Devine Agribusiness for an EOI package, complete, and return to the company. Note that Devine Agribusiness are prepared to act as an agent on behalf of eligible landholders.
2. We determine likely eligibility.
3. If vegetation was eligible field measurements were taken to calculate the quantity of carbon stored.
4. An offer was made to the landholder based on the eligible area and quantity of carbon stored.
5. Where pricing and terms can be agreed, a contract between the Carbon Pool and landholders was signed whereby The Carbon Pool agreed to purchase the stored “carbon rights” subject to independent verification.
6. Independent verification took place.
7. If verified, the Carbon rights were registered on the land title and Stamp Duty paid by the company.
8. Landholders received payment upon registration.

Take early action on climate risk.

Minding the Carbon Store - an opportunity for companies to offset greenhouse gas emissions while conserving biodiversity.

What is Minding the Carbon Store (MTCS)?
This innovative project reduced greenhouse gas emissions and conserved biodiversity by paying landowners with clearing permits (under the Queensland Government’s 500,000 hectare cap) who commited not to clear.

In 2004, the Queensland Government legislated to first cap and then end broad-scale clearing of native vegetation by the end of 2006. If all clearing under the cap is undertaken, the result would be the release of around 70 million tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere.

The project protected carbon that is already stored in these remnant native forest and woodlands. Clearing these areas represents a valuable development opportunity to landowners, and in the absence of the project virtually the whole area would be cleared.

MTCS saved over 12,000 hectares of forest and woodland before the end of this calendar year and generated in excess of 1.25 million tonnes of greenhouse emission abatement.

The opportunity for companies
Affordable verified offsets to greenhouse gas emissions Highly tangible biodiversity benefits Participation in a world leading avoided deforestation project building corporate capacity to compete in a carbon constrained world benefits to corporate image Who managed the project? The Carbon Pool Pty Ltd (TCP) is the project manager. TCP acquires and deals in Carbon Rights, manages arrangements with landowners, reserves a “risk management buffer” of 20% of total carbon rights and arranges accreditation and verification of abatement.

How was the abatement from MTCS verified?
MTCS project approval and verification of abatement was obtained under the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Friendly Initiative.

How is the carbon secured?
Queensland legislation allows for the registration on land titles of a profit a prendre known as a Natural Resource Product which can comprise either “carbon stored in trees” or “carbon sequestration by trees”.

TCP’s carbon rights in the land are established through a registered Deed with a Term of 120 years, and include the right to enforce an agreed management plan for the retained vegetation.

How is the carbon measured?
Field scientists measure vegetation across eligible areas, taking standard forestry measurements to determine biomass.

These data are analysed statistically to determine carbon stocks per hectare and the Australian Greenhouse Office FullCAM model is used to determine a “deemed” emission profile of the protected vegetation.

Risk Management Buffer
Queensland Carbon Assurance Ltd, a company limited by guarantee, will manage 20% of total verified carbon rights arising from the project.

MTCS Carbon Rights
While legislation for Carbon Rights recognition is only recently developed, TCP’s rights registered on the title to each piece of land effectively allow transfer of the benefits of the stored carbon to abatement buyers.

Greenhouse Friendly
Greenhouse Friendly allows companies the opportunity to purchase verified offsets as a proactive voluntary response to climate risk.

Companies can use MTCS Carbon Rights verified under Greenhouse Friendly in Greenhouse Challenge Plus inventories. Banking of approved Greenhouse Friendly abatement is allowed indefinitely.

How to buy
1. Contact Us
2. We provide a package of materials to enable due diligence inquiries to be conducted.
3. A Sale and Purchase Agreement is negotiated regarding price, volume and other terms.
4. Transfer of Carbon Rights and settlement occurs.

Overview
Greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized developed economies are mainly from the use of fossil fuels for energy. Australia however, like many developing nations, has substantial emissions from Land Use Change (deforestation). Deforestation is a source of greenhouse gas emissions from the burning and decay of cleared forest and woodland biomass.

Deforestation is occurring around the globe to make way for agriculture, urban developments and timber products. Approximately one fifth of annual global greenhouse gas emissions are from deforestation, primarily of tropical forests. Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, and numerous species face extinction as a result of forest clearing and habitat loss.

Woodlands and forests can be protected in a cost effective manner through generating offsets to greenhouse gas emissions, and the Minding the Carbon Store project provides a working example of this. Other areas could be protected if protocols to account for this type of emission reduction are established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and/or the Kyoto Protocol.

Emission reductions from Avoided Deforestation are based on protecting the carbon that is already stored in vegetation, whereas credits from reforestation are based on absorption of atmospheric carbon over time. Both approaches offer considerable climate change mitigation, and both can have significant benefits in the achievement of sustainable development objectives, biodiversity conservation, and combating desertification.

At the 1997 Kyoto conference, a market based strategy was adopted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere by creating an international market in emissions (carbon) trading. The trading mechanism relevant to developing nations, where most deforestation is currently taking place, is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Under the CDM, projects in developing nations which reduce greenhouse emissions below a “business as usual” baseline can earn credits, subject to the appropriateness of the project type and the use of approved methods of accounting for project benefits. However, projects to avoid deforestation can result in shifting (known as leakage) of the deforestation activity to another location within the host nation. Because of this difficulty, reducing deforestation was excluded as a project type.

Recently the governments of Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica have put a proposal to the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol to reintroduce projects to reduce deforestation under the CDM. The distinguishing feature of this proposal is that accounting would be against a negotiated national baseline for the Land Use Change and Forestry sector.

This proposal highlights the essential feature of valid accounting of the benefits of avoided deforestation, namely the existence of a baseline or “cap”, with emission reductions accounted for reducing below this.

In 2004, the Government of Queensland, Australia legislated to first cap and then end broad-scale clearing of native vegetation by the end of 2006. This provides an opportunity for carbon credits to be generated and verified under the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Friendly Initiative. We hope to reduce the amount of vegetation clearing under the cap, protecting at least 30,000 hectares of forest and woodland and generate in excess of 3 million tonnes of tradable abatement.

The Minding the Carbon Store Project produced outstanding biodiversity outcomes in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Protecting vegetation communities classified as “of concern” under Queensland legislation was a priority for the project. Ecosystems classified as being “of concern” are those in which 70%-90% of the original vegetation has been cleared or extensively modified.

Local occurrences of a number of such communities, including a range of Gidgee (Acacia cambagei) and Dawson Gum (Eucalyptus cambageana) dominated woodlands and scrubs, as well as some small areas of brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) have been protected . These ecosystems tend to have an inherently rich diversity of flora and fauna, with some areas assessed being mapped as “essential habitat” for vulnerable, rare or threatened species, eg the Painted Honeyeater (Grantiella picta).

Of the vegetation communities involved in the project, a significant proportion include the eucalypt Poplar Box (Eucalyptus populnea) as either a dominant or co-dominant tree species. From a biodiversity perspective, an important feature of poplar box is the tendency of older trees to develop multiple hollows within its trunk and branches. These hollows provide critical lodgings and nesting sites for a wide variety of fauna, including a vast array of different birds, various mammals (particularly bats) as well as a number of reptiles (skinks, geckos, and some snakes).

Some significant areas of mulga-dominated ecosystems have been included. Many of these communities have been subject to “thickening” in recent times, probably due to a reduction in the frequency and intensity of fires since white settlement. This thickening has a detrimental impact on their inherent biodiversity (and production) values. Land management allowed by the project can transform those mulga systems back to a more original woodland structure. Restoring the natural structure of such communities with an associated increase in ground cover can significantly improve their habitat values.

Minding the Carbon Store has concentrated on the semi-arid south-west of Queensland. We are also seeking to protect a wide range of habitats threatened with clearing across the State. Ecosystems classified as “of concern” and those which either have high biodiversity vales or are important habitat for rare, threatened or vulnerable species will continue to be a priority.