Further detail can be found in the Climate Change Adaptation Plan for NRM in the Goulburn Broken Catchment.

 

The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority supports carbon farming activities that:

• contribute to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change;
• contribute to the protection and enhancement or restoration of natural resources to increase their resilience; and
• maintain or enhance the resilience and cohesion of regional communities.

 

Carbon farming projects should:

• Protect and enhance or restore areas of high biodiversity conservation value (non-environmental plantings should be directed away from areas of existing native vegetation and waterways to reduce risks associated with the introduction of new genetic material and water interception).
• Improve landscape resilience through enhancing remnant native habitat and improving connectivity.
• Increase the resilience of soils.
• Prioritise the use of low value agricultural land and degraded landscapes.

 

Carbon farming activities that can support the implementation of the Goulburn Broken Regional Catchment Strategy include:

• Natural regeneration – to assist carbon stocks associated with existing native habitat.
• Environmental plantings – to increase terrestrial carbon stocks through revegetation, especially along waterways, and to buffer and connect high value remnant native vegetation.
• Grazing system change – to increase soil carbon in agricultural systems by implementing management actions such as flexible grazing techniques based on pasture and livestock requirements that maintain productivity and improve ground cover.
• Cropping system change – to increase soil carbon in broad-acre cropping systems as a result of implementing management actions such as no-till cropping and retaining organic matter.
• Blue carbon sequestration through the conservation and restoration of wetlands.
• Non-environmental plantings – establishment of a new plantation (trees, shrubs) on land that has not recently supported native vegetation.  The new plantation could include environmental plantings, farm forestry, groundwater recharge or discharge management or long-rotation hardwood plantations.

 

For further information about some of these carbon farming activities please refer to the Australian Government Clean Energy Regulator.

  

Project proponents should consider:

• Contacting the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority to discuss a proposed project's alignment with regional natural resource management strategies and plans
• Federal, State and local legislation and regulations regarding such issues including, but not exclusive to, water interception, fire management, native vegetation retention, land use planning, cultural heritage and invasive plants and animals.
• The eligibility of projects under the Emissions Reduction Fund and other carbon markets (e.g. Mallee plantings are only eligible in areas with less than 600mm average annual rainfall)
• The viability of plant species under climate change scenarios.