About Land Restoration Fund
The Queensland Government’s $500 million Land Restoration Fund aims to expand carbon farming in the state by supporting land-sector projects that deliver clear environmental and economic co-benefits.
Carbon farming refers to land management activities that reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. This can be achieved by planting trees, protecting native forest by reducing land clearing, managing bushfires through savanna burning and changing farming practices to increase soil carbon.
How will it work?
The Land Restoration Fund seeks to support Queensland’s carbon farming future by supporting:
- Queensland-based carbon farming projects that deliver environmental and economic co-benefits
- research and development into emerging areas where Queensland has a comparative advantage to establish new carbon farming methods.
What are co-benefits?
Co-benefits are direct positive outcomes associated with carbon farming projects. These benefits are in addition to the carbon emissions avoided or carbon stored.
The Land Restoration Fund supports projects that:
- sequester carbon in land and soil to reduce Queensland’s carbon emissions
- boost revenue sources for farmers and other landholders in regional and rural Queensland
- deliver social and community benefits especially for Traditional Owners
- improve Great Barrier Reef water quality
- enhance wetlands for fisheries and hatcheries improving commercial fishing opportunities
- strengthen critical habitat protection
- restore ecosystems and degraded land.
Carbon farming in Queensland
As at 31 March 2018, almost 5 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) had been issued to more than 100 Queensland land-sector carbon farming projects—generating millions of dollars in revenue—under the Australian Government's Emission Reduction Fund.
As the world transitions to a zero-net emissions economy, government and private sector emitters will seek new supplies of carbon credits to offset their emissions.
An analysis undertaken in 2017 by energy consultants, Energetics, estimated the carbon farming industry in Queensland could grow to around $8 billion by 2030, under certain conditions.
Find out more about carbon farming in Queensland.
More information
For further information email carbonfarming@des.qld.gov.au