Regrowth has often been seen as a blight on the landscape in western Queensland, or at least as less productive than country that is growing grass to feed stock, but now Berrick Wagstaff is on a crusade to turn that timber into cash through carbon credits.
The boy from the bush – he grew up in Blackall and has spent the best part of half his life working in Queensland, the Riverina and the Northern Territory – has just been appointed as landholder relations manager for CO2 Australia.
Established in 1990 to provide environmental solutions for commercial results, the company is one of the leading carbon offset and greenhouse emissions management services in Australia.
Berrick will be operating for them throughout regional Queensland and north-western New South Wales to connect interested landholders with their carbon expertise, and says he is keen to target regrowth country.
“The message is, people can be compensated if they don’t clear for 10 to 20 years, and they can still graze that country, at a reduced rate,” he said. “I grew up in an era where knocking trees down was the accepted practice, but this can create a passive income for people in a different way.”
Berrick said the amount of income derived would depend on the amount of vegetation that was growing, but in some cases people had been compensated more than if they grazed the country.
He said in his experience, most landholders he’d spoken to had a patch of country that wasn’t being productive for grazing and for whom this program would be relevant.
CO2 Australia typically acts as an Emissions Reduction Fund agent on behalf of landholders, taking the lead on managing the technical, compliance and revenue generation aspects of carbon projects.
"By working with us, the whole process of establishing projects, generating carbon credits and getting the sales revenue becomes simple - we do all the work and the landholder can be hands-free," Berrick said.
“Our people will come in and do a visual inspection, checking the height of the trees and the canopy cover, in order to calculate the carbon credit units.
“One thing to stress is that it’s got to be native vegetation – it’s no good planting a paddock of something quick-growing.”
A key driver for Berrick’s appointment, and carbon projects more broadly, has been the Australian Government's Emissions Reduction Fund, through which $2.55 billion has been committed to purchasing carbon credits from eligible project activities, which include managing regrowth vegetation, soil carbon and cattle herd management.
"Carbon projects have become big business for many farmers and landholders, with carbon credit sale proceeds running into millions of dollars for some projects," CO2 Australia director James Bulinski said.
"With his extensive rural background, Berrick is an obvious choice to help us work with landholders to integrate carbon projects into their grazing operations".
Berrick will be on the ground at the Muttaburra show on June 11, together with Mr Bulinski, and is planning a number of information sessions through coming months, to explain the opportunities surrounding carbon projects.
Interested people can contact him in the meantime on 0429 722 347.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
