The Queensland Government has released the 'Carbon Farming in Rural Queensland' document to support rural landholders wishing to participate in the Carbon Farming Initiative. The document summarises the government’s actions and policies to support Queensland landholder participation in the emerging carbon market.

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The Action on the land initiative under the Clean Energy Futures Plan will see economic and environmental benefits go hand in hand. The plan will provide opportunities for regional farmers and landholders to work with researches and carbon traders to lower carbon emissions in the agriculture and land sector while reaping better economic and environmental outcomes.

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The Carbon Farming Initiative Administrator is now open for business, providing exciting opportunities for farmers, landholders and landfill operators to participate in carbon markets. The Administrator facilitates the CFI activities in several ways including explaining the CFI, how to participate, assessing stakeholder applications to become a recognised offsets entity and issuing certificates for carbon credits.

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Environmental Stewardship Program round two funding is now open and will be conducted in the South Australian regions of Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Northern and Yorke and the South Australian Murray Darling Basin NRM region. Eligible land managers include farmers, indigenous communities, and other managers of private freehold and leasehold land.

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Applications under the 2012–13 Caring for our Country Business Plan close on 9 February. Applicants can apply for funds to for projects between $20,000 and $500,000.

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The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority is currently rolling out a second Wetland Tender in 2011–12 following the success of the 2010–11 tender. Target wetland types include redgum wetlands, cane grass wetlands, billabong aggregate wetlands, plains grassy wetlands, and spike-sedge wetlands.

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The 2012 edition of the National Environmental Grants Guide is now available. The annual directory lists environmental grant and funding opportunities available from around Australia. Yarramine Environmental are offering a 20 per cent off sale until 30 January 2012.

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Farmers and other land managers can now apply for funding under the Biodiversity Fund, with round one funding applications open until 31 January. The Biodiversity Fund aims to improve the resilience of Australia’s unique species to the impacts of climate change, enhance the environmental outcomes of carbon farming projects, and help landholders protect carbon and biodiversity values on their land.

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The Australian Government has released new funding announcements for the Land Sector Package and Caring for our Country.

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As interest in carbon forestry grows in Australia and internationally the CSIRO has carried out an economic assessment to examine the opportunities for, and constrains to, expanding carbon forestry in Australia. The research estimates the economic return of carbon forestry across the whole of cleared land in Australia over 40 years by examining various scenarios based on different discount rates, carbon prices, cost of establishing plantings and rates of carbon sequestration.

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On 12 October Australia passed the Clean Energy legislative package through the House of Representatives. As one of the top five per capita polluters in the world and the driest continent in the world this is a significant achievement. The carbon price mechanism acts as an incentive for heavy polluters to move towards low emissions technology and will provide the land sector opportunities to be involved in carbon markets. The carbon tax intends to cut emissions from 2000 levels by five per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.

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SEQ Catchments and the University of the Sunshine Coast have developed a framework for organisations and individuals to integrate the idea of ecosystem services into everyday operations. The group first produced a research paper, The Development of an Ecosystem Services Framework for South East Queensland, which describes the four vital components of the ecosystem services framework and related matrices and maps.

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The government is preparing a list of positive and negative Carbon Farming Initiative activities, which will help farmers, landholders and forest growers determine eligible activities. The lists aims to ensure carbon credits are consistent with internationally recognised standards and that each credit represents one tonne of genuinely additional greenhouse gas abatement. The lists will identify activities that are eligible and ineligible to participate in the CFI based on impacts to community and environment.

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NAILSMA and its Carbon Project partners have developed savanna burning emissions accounting methodology, which is the first approved by the Australian Government under the Carbon Farming Initiative. This is a major step in assisting Indigenous land managers in northern Australia to access developing carbon markets in Australia and overseas. The NAILSMA Carbon Project integrates Indigenous knowledge with western science to enhance Indigenous livelihoods and achieve multiple environmental outcomes.

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The National MBI Forum in Canberra on 28 July proved to increase understanding of MBI in Australia and provide insight into research opportunities and the future application of MBI in Australia. Outcomes suggest that MBI use in Australia has reached a second stage of development.

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