CARBON project developer, Natural Carbon is partnering with cattle station operator, Paraway Pastoral Co and carbon market specialists Corporate Carbon, on a national ‘herd aggregation’ project – giving smaller graziers a first opportunity to participate in the Australian carbon market.
Spearheaded by Paraway with two cattle herds at its Rocklands and Tanbar properties near Camooweal and Windorah respectively, the pioneering project groups together smaller herds of 1000 plus animals nationwide, with a focus on western Queensland.
The ‘herd aggregation’ project pools administrative and compliance fees, lowering the cost of carbon market participation and allowing smaller graziers to collectively benefit from the sale of carbon credits generated by the beef cattle herd management method – an Australian carbon farming method previously only applicable to herds of over 50,000 heads.
The innovative project was recognised for its efforts to make the herd management method more accessible to smaller operators last year, collaborating with Southern Gulf NRM to receive a pilot grant from the Queensland Government’s new $500 million Land Restoration Fund. The herd aggregation project will also apply for the Fund’s 2020 Investment Round that opened yesterday, 28 January.
Natural Carbon is now calling for expressions of interest from smaller graziers that would like to participate in the herd aggregation project and earn carbon credits.
Julien Gastaldi, General Manager at Natural Carbon, said that the herd aggregation project was exactly the kind of innovation the state government hopes to support with the Land Restoration Fund, which aims to expand carbon farming throughout Queensland to drive down emissions, “Making the carbon market accessible to players of all sizes is essential in reducing emissions and ensuring a prosperous future for Queensland’s agricultural and farming community.”
Paul McDougall, Sustainability Manager at Paraway Pastoral said his company was happy to contribute two herds to the project, which he describes as a win-win situation, “We saw this as a great opportunity to enable smaller producers to be credited for reducing the emissions intensity of their herds, while we benefit from improved productivity and generate carbon credits.”
Gary Wyatt, Director at Corporate Carbon commended the pastoral company’s far-sighted leadership, “By establishing this aggregation project, Paraway has created a pathway for producers with small herds to realise the benefits of carbon farming, cutting the cost of participation for a smaller producer by as much as 80%.”
As well as making carbon market accessible to smaller operators, the project also demonstrates how the herd management method aligns with the many other social, economic and local environmental benefits that the Land Restoration Fund is focused on.
Source: Natural Carbon. Operators with cattle herds of at least 1000 head that would like to participate in the herd aggregation project can click here to register their interest, or call or email Natural Carbon’s Julien Gastaldi on 0479 043 903 / julien.gastaldi@naturalcarbon.
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No doubt there is plenty of money to be made in these schemes for the people in compliance and regulation,
It will be ironic if they then use that money to do things like increase consumer consumption and take overseas trips on planes, burning up lots of oil and creating lots of emissions.
It amazes me the new ways that come up for people to make money out of nothing. We are lucky we are so wealthy we can afford it.