Nativ Carbon, a Perth-based company that delivers vegetation farming for carbon offsets to the mining and oil and gas sectors, announced the recent completion of the largest reforestation project ever in Australia.
Located near Moora in Western Australia, the project consisted of the reforestation of unviable farmland owned by oil company Woodside.
The Moora project included the use of more than 40 biodiverse species and over 1.2 million seedlings.
“The goal of the project was to achieve Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) objectives as well as create a diverse habitat for native fauna,” Nativ Carbon director David Lullfitz said in a media statement. “We are working with industry to reforest vast tracts of degraded, cleared land and that will not only put back the trees, and shrubs, it will stimulate regional and Indigenous employment. Furthermore, it will result in fauna returning to land that was cleared historically.”
In Lullfitz’s view, Woodside’s initiative in the Western Australian Wheatbelt is a good example of what other industries in the region can do to offset their carbon emissions.
The executive noted that laws governing ACCUs are fostering a range of new restoration and environmental industries which is creating significant regional employment opportunities.
The Moora development, for example, employed a substantial number of Aboriginal people who assisted with seed collecting, fence removal, weed control and plant installation. Overall, about 30 people worked on plant installation and surface preparation.
“Our statistics for our first project were 51% Indigenous employment for the planting crew. Twenty-one people were employed in the planting crew in total. A further 24% of those 21 employees, were recruited from the local Moora area,” the release reads.
“Nativ Carbon aims to consistently provide regional and Indigenous employment opportunities, where possible, and we are pleased to have achieved that goal in this project.”
