Environmental plantings pilot

Under the reforestation by environmental or mallee plantings 2014 method, an environmental plantings pilot project must:

• establish plantings on land that has been clear of forest cover for the 5 years before the application to register the project
• have trees with the potential to attain:
  • height of 2 metres or more
  • crown cover of at least 20% of the land
• maintain at least 200 stems per hectare within their carbon estimation areas.

A project that establishes mixed-species environmental plantings must have a mix of tree and shrub species that are:

• native to the local area of the planting
• established through plantings of tubestock or seeds – these must be from the natural distribution of the species and appropriate to the biophysical characteristics of the area.

Grazing

Livestock grazing in carbon estimation areas is restricted if that grazing prevents forest cover growth in the area or reduces forest cover after it has been reached.

Land has forest cover if the vegetation on the land includes trees that are 2 metres or more in height and provide canopy cover of at least 20% of the land. 

Removing biomass

You can’t remove biomass, such as fallen timber, from the carbon estimation area unless for:

• ecological or fire management purposes
• personal use, in the case of removals of fruits, nuts, fencing, or craft material
• use in accordance with traditional First Nations practices or native title rights.

Further information on restricted can be found in division 3.8 of the methodology determination.

The crediting period is the 25-year period where ACCUs can be generated.

The start date is either:

• the date that the project was declared
• a date decided by the project proponent that is within 18 months of the declaration date.

The permanence period is when the project proponent is required to maintain the carbon stored by the project. 

The proponent nominates the permanence period at project registration, which may either be 25 or 100 years. 

Projects are required to prepare and submit offsets reports for the life of the project, including the permanence period. 

An offsets report and crediting application must be submitted at least once every 5 years, but they can be submitted as frequently as every 6 months. 

You must complete an ACCU Scheme project report and crediting form in Online Services for every reporting period. As part of the pilot, we will help you prepare your offsets report and crediting applications.

Your report and application must include:

• activity information
• geospatial data
• net abatement amount and related carbon stock data.

Read more about project reporting. 

You must keep records on:

• forest cover and plantings
• stratification into carbon estimation areas
• fires
• fuel use
• FullCAM modelling
• forest management
• the project area.

Refer to the method for all record-keeping requirements. You must remember to also meet the record-keeping requirements of the Act and the rule. 

Projects in the pilot must meet alternative assurance requirements. To be eligible for alternative assurance:

• proponents must be the owner, leaseholder or native title holder of the project land
• the total area of the carbon estimation areas must be no more than 200 hectares
• projects must be modelled as a mixed-species environmental block planting using the generic calibration in FullCAM.

There are no audits required for alternative assurance projects – this significantly reduces the project costs. 

Instead, we use geospatial monitoring of your project to:

• confirm the planting activity has happened
• verify that abatement is achieved
• monitor for disturbances.

To support our verification process, you may need to provide additional evidence, such as geo-tagged photos of the vegetation. 

You must notify us if your project no longer qualifies for alternative assurance. Your project will be issued an updated audit schedule and will no longer be included in the pilot.