Rewards not just environmental for farmers planting seeds of change

Planting 75,000 trees isn’t something you’d embark on without due consideration, let alone 500,000 across an area the size of 220 MCGs.

But the environmental benefit and the promise of a new income stream have pushed a Gippsland farmer to join Australia’s largest ever reforestation carbon aggregation effort.

The terrain is steep and challenging at Tom and Ingrid Brown’s property at Allambee in the hills south of Yarragon in eastern Victoria.

“Parts of the farm are hard to manage in that there’s some steep areas and some slopes across the farm,” Mr Brown said.

“But the planting of the trees means we don’t have to worry about those parts of the farm anymore.”

With that in mind, Mr Brown agreed to take part in the project.

“We wanted to do something for our kids and our grandkids and had looked to do it ourselves, but just didn’t have the time or resources,” he said.

Mr Brown’s property will soon be home to more than 75,000 trees, with contractors expected to finish planting mid-September.

He is one of seven farmers who took part in the aggregation of approximately 546,000 trees.

A rewarding pursuit

The project is managed by Greening Australia.

“With Greening Australia, it’s like a lease,” Mr Brown said.

“So if you were agisting your land with cattle or sheep or something like that, you’d get a payment for that, and it’s a similar situation with Greening Australia – they’re effectively leasing the land that the trees are growing in and they’re paying us for that.”

Greening Australia chief executive officer Brendan Foran said the project would deliver carbon sequestration and biodiversity improvement while enabling economies of scale and greater financial return for landholders.

He said farmers who could find great value in such projects.

“I don’t think farmers are properly rewarded or incentivised for the ecosystem services, clean air, clean water, good soil, that largely accrue off their enterprise,” Mr Foran said.

“I can’t think of another part of the economy where a producer of services that others benefit from, don’t get rewarded.”

Mr Foran said his organisation planted 7.5 million trees a year and planned to grow that number to 500 million a year by 2030.

“That’s a big indication of the scale that we want to operate at to actually make a difference in some of these great environmental challenges, boost agricultural productivity, return economic and commercial value,” he said.