PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) has welcomed a decision by the Western Australian government to allow carbon farming on pastoral leases.

The state government on Thursday announced that it would back carbon farming on pastoral leases for the first time in the state’s history, allowing pastoralists to build resilience to climate change and improve pastoral productivity.

"Not only does this decision support the state's efforts to fight climate change, Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) carbon farming means our state's pastoralists can access a new revenue stream while rehabilitating degraded pastoral lands,” said Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan.

"Prior to the government's support for carbon farming, Western Australia had been contracted just 4% of the federal government's A$2.55-billion Emissions Reduction fund, compared to Queensland, which has received 43% to date.

"This decision today allows more than A$70-million to flow to our state's pastoralists for carbon abatement credits, and we expect funding from industry and government will be available for future projects.”

HIR projects support the regeneration of native vegetation through managing cattle grazing, which sequesters carbon and allows pastoralists to earn carbon credits.

The 43 carbon farming projects have contracted more than five-million tonnes of carbon abatement via the Commonwealth Emissions Reduction Fund, which will provide approximately A$70-million to pastoralists.

A further 15-million tonnes are expected to be sold directly to major greenhouse gas emitters who need to purchase carbon offsets.

The Minister for Lands has been given authority to provide state eligible interest holder consent to individual projects that meet the approved assessment requirements.

Final consent from the state government will be subject to measures aimed at enabling the growth of the carbon farming industry, promoting co-existence with the mining and resource sector and protecting native title rights and interests, including a rolling five-year review of HIR carbon farming implementation, with input from stakeholders.

Furthermore, pastoralists must demonstrate engagement with registered native title body corporates, while mining leases, State Agreement areas and pending mining/general purpose/miscellaneous licences would be excluded from carbon project areas.

The state government would also compensate for loss of carbon production as a result of low impact mining/exploration activities.


“This announcement is a good example of how the mining industry is working with government and landholders to support emissions reduction and improved environmental outcomes across the state,” Amec CEO Warren Pearce said.

“The decision allows pastoralists to earn carbon credits from sequestering carbon on pastoral lands, resulting in Western Australian pastoralists potentially earning A$70-million over 25 years from the federal government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.



“This follows significant consultation with Amec and the mining and mineral exploration industry to ensure that adverse impacts for future mineral exploration can be mitigated, and pastoralists and miners can unlock the potential of carbon farming in Western Australia,” said Pearce.