Understand how trees improve the carbon balance - carbon investing improves your ROI from trees

Posted 19 June 2020

Managing trees Economic benefits and markets Carbon benefits

---

Many private landowners have expressed a strong interest in using trees to reduce climate impacts by sequestering more carbon.

Co-incidentally this carbon investment will increase the economic return from trees on farms which adds to a myriad of other benefits.

Private Forest Tasmania have been negotiating with various carbon investors and as a result developed relationships with a number of these including; Corporate Carbon Advisory/Climate Friendly, WeAct and Greenfleet.

These investors have stated their willingness to work with tree growers in Tasmania although Private Forest Tasmania will continue to seek others and will post their credentials in due course.

Planting commercially viable trees is a good way to improve the carbon balance because the harvested product is usually locked up in timber and other fibrous materials on a permanent basis. There are two ways to address rising atmospheric CO2: reducing emissions and absorbing and storing CO2.

Trees and wood products can do both. When trees grow, they actively absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it as wood.

When wood from sustainably managed sources is used in place of other materials such as metal, concrete and plastic, that return more CO2 to the atmosphere over their lifecycle, there are also carbon emission reduction benefits. The trees can then be replanted, and the cycle starts again.

Apart from these climate benefits, as a tree grower you can obtain significant assistance in the form of a rebate via the Federal Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF).

To access this you are often best served by working with a professional organisation such as those listed above.

These organisations are equipped to manage the mapping and accounting necessary to satisfy the regulators.