Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund and The Biodiversity Fund
The Australian Government has introduced a carbon tax of $23/tonne which will come into force from 1 July 2012.
Although the carbon price will not apply to agricultural emissions, it will enhance opportunities for farmers and land managers under the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI).
Through the Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will receive assistance to participate in the CFI.
Indigenous Australians manage around 20 per cent of Australia’sland mass, drawing on traditional knowledge of thelandscape and its responses to fire, flood anddrought.
The CFI provides new economic rewards for farmers and landholders who take steps to reduce carbon pollution. It will do this by creating credits for each tonne of carbon pollution which can be stored or reduced on the land.
Funding will be provided for:
- specialists to work with Indigenous communities to develop carbon farming projects; and
- development of low-cost estimation and reporting tools for abatement activities likely to have high Indigenous participation, such as savanna fire management.
Funding of $22 million over five years will be available from 2012-13.
The engagement of specialists to work with Indigenous communities will be administered by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, water, Population and Communities.
The development of low-cost estimation and reporting tools will be administered by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
Further detail about the fund will be available soon.
You can register your interest in receiving email updates about the Indigenous Carbon Farming Fund and other land sector measures by emailing cfi@climatechange.gov.au .
The Biodiversity Fund
Another of the CFI related programs is the Biodiversity Fund
The Biodiversity Fund will invest around $946m over the next six years to help land managers store carbon, enhance biodiversity and build greater environmental resilience across the Australian landscape.
To do this, it will fund eligible land managers including Indigenous land managers, for activities which restore, manage and better protect biodiversity on public and private land. It will also provide support to land managers who wish to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the new carbon market. The Biodiversity Fund will provide support to establishing new carbon stores or better managing carbon stores of existing native habitat.
The Biodiversity Fund will invest in three main areas:
- Biodiverse plantings
- Funding will help land managers expand native habitat on their property through planting mixed vegetation species appropriate to the region. This will help build landscape resilience and connectivity.
- Protecting and enhancing existing native vegetation
- Funding will support land managers to protect, manage and enhance existing native vegetation in high conservation areas on their land for its carbon storage and biodiversity benefits.
- Managing threats to biodiversity
- Funding will control the threat of invasive pests and weeds in a connected landscape.
The Biodiversity Fund will support projects that, for example:
• establish new bio‐diverse plantings of mixed species that establish and re‐connect well-functioning
native ecosystems
• revegetate the landscape to improve connections between remnant native vegetation across public
and private lands, particularly in the fragmented rural, coast and peri‐urban landscapes of south
eastern and south western Australia and Tasmania
• restore native habitats in largely intact landscapes in northern Australia and/or on the rangelands,
• establish new bio‐diverse plantings of mixed species that establish and re‐connect well-functioning
native ecosystems
• revegetate the landscape to improve connections between remnant native vegetation across public
and private lands, particularly in the fragmented rural, coast and peri‐urban landscapes of south
eastern and south western Australia and Tasmania
• restore native habitats in largely intact landscapes in northern Australia and/or on the rangelands,
• enhance the condition of native vegetation adjacent to existing key assets such as World Heritage
Areas, RAMSAR sites or protected areas in the National Reserve System
• establish and restore native wetland and waterway habitats, particularly on already cleared lands or
lands predominately occupied by non‐native vegetation
• reduce the impacts of invasive species across connected landscapes
Areas, RAMSAR sites or protected areas in the National Reserve System
• establish and restore native wetland and waterway habitats, particularly on already cleared lands or
lands predominately occupied by non‐native vegetation
• reduce the impacts of invasive species across connected landscapes
Applications close on January 31st 2012 for the first round.
For more information or to apply for funding click HERE
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