Carbon sequestration and trees

Forestry and the Kyoto Protocol

Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries are responsible for the net emissions from managed forests – ie, the balance between emissions associated with deforestation and the sequestration of greenhouse gases through reforestation. Reforestation is defined as the direct human-induced conversion of land that was clear of forest at 31 December 1989 to forested land.

Reforestation only occurs where a positive human action has been undertaken to establish the forest. The removal of suppression activities (e.g. grazing) or the realisation of the potential of the existing vegetation would not be considered to be a positive human intervention.

Australia’s definition of a forest for Kyoto Protocol purposes is a forest of trees with a potential height of at least two metres and crown cover of at least 20 per cent, and in patches greater than 0.2 hectares in area.

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Forestry and the Carbon Farming Initiative  

The Garnaut Report is quite positive regarding the ability of forestry to sequester carbon. However, the potential for negative impacts from expanded forestry on conservation, catchment water yields, regional communities and food production were not included in the modelling.

The policy position in the White Paper is that all reforestation (whether plantation forestry or environmental plantings not intended for harvest) will be included, on a voluntary basis, from Scheme commencement. However, the CPRS will cover only emissions sources and sinks counted in Australia’s Kyoto Protocol national account.

Some information on the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) is available on this website (link to the CFI section), but for more details or the most up-to-date information, go to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency website (link).
Sequestering carbon in ‘forests’ is a major target for the CFI as indicated by the fact that the first example in the Government’s consultation paper re a positive list for activities says “Establishment of permanent environmental (mixed native species) forests greater than 1 ha after July 1, 2007.”

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Opportunities for dairy farmers

At this point it is not appropriate for farmers (including dairy farmers) to establish ‘forestry plantings’ with the intent of gaining a credit for the sequestered carbon. This is because the rules for forestry carbon accounting under Australian legislation are not yet finalised.

For example, the base year for Kyoto accounting is 1990, so that any forestation that occurred post January 1, 1990 could be counted as making a contribution to Australia’s Kyoto obligation. Any carbon reduction legislation in Australia (such as the CPRS) may set a later date than 1990 to reflect the need for ‘additional’ plantings rather than simply generating sequestration off-sets from plantings between 1990 and the present.

Even when the rules are clear, there will be only limited opportunities for most dairy farmers. Dairy farms are usually small, intensively managed properties with little of the land class where Government modelling indicates that forestry plantings for carbon sequestration may be economic – ie marginal and lowly productive farmland. On the other hand, many dairy farms have small areas, including riparian zones, where revegetation for conservation purposes is already encouraged and common, and where an additional benefit from carbon sequestration may be available for existing or new plantings.

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References and resources

The full text of the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent documentation is available here.

Check the current status of Australia’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme at the Department of Climate Change website

Garnaut Climate Change Review, 2008, Emissions Trading Scheme Discussion Paper – March 2008, electronic resource.

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