Old Bredbo is a 1,100-hectare farming property on Ngarigo Country in the Monaro region of New South Wales. In 2022, Canopy partnered with Greening Australia and the landholders to plant 25,000 native trees and shrubs across 65 hectares of the property as an environmental planting carbon project. The fencing and planting layout was co-designed with the landholders to meet the registration requirements of the Clean Energy Regulator and multiple conservation and production goals.
Besides capturing carbon and helping in the mitigation of climate change, the planting at Old Bredbo is designed to create shelter for livestock, and improve pasture and grazing management by erecting several kilometres of new fencing.
Gullies on the property that flow into Strike-a-light River, as well as long sections of the river itself, have also been fenced to manage livestock impact and planted with native trees and shrubs to reduce erosion and stabilise banks, ultimately improving water quality and reducing sediment flowing into the Murrumbidgee River catchment.
“My aim was to get the stock out of the gullies and stabilise them, with reduced run-off raising those gullies and raising the water table. The planting is of great benefit, and if carbon’s going to help pay for it, it just adds up. The offset revenue will probably cover a few of the set costs for the next 25 years, which gives this property a chance of making a net profit. Everything helps.”
The selection of plant species and design of the planting at Old Bredbo will connect large patches of remnant bushland on two ridges neighbouring the property, providing habitat and safe passage across the valley floor for a variety of native animal species, including a Koala population which calls the Jerangle Range home.
The project is expected to generate up to 20,000 high integrity nature-based Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) over 25 years, to be sold into the carbon market. The first audit and credit issuance of this carbon planting will be in 2024.
