Carbon credits seeding next chapter of Tiwi forestry
Forestry in the Tiwi Islands has a long and complex history.
Plantations on islands 80 kilometers north of Darwin have not always been in the best interest of Tiwi people and the natural environment for decades.
Tiwi Plantations Corporation chairman Kim Puruntatameri is confident that the latest forestry effort has lived up to all expectations; will be financially and environmentally sustainable, and is confident that more of the economic benefit will be retained in local hands.
Under the project, owned by the organization managed by all eight clans, 30,000 hectares of native eucalyptus species will be planted on Melville Island, which will eventually be harvested for construction timber and other wood products.
The project will be delivered by plantation investment manager Midway and will be supported by a total investment of $81 million from the federal green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and private investment firm River Capital.
Mr Puruntatameri said local employment opportunities were very significant, with Tiwi men and women already working in nurseries and plantations and would start in the coming months.
“We send high school kids to visit,” he told AAP.
“We talk to them about it, ‘If you leave school and this is where you want to work, there’s a lot of things they can do.'”
“We must take good care of the land for future generations.”
The trees will be planted on existing forest land that previously contained an acacia species that can reproduce quickly and has been found to have escaped from the plantation into local forests.
The scientists were involved in testing a more suitable tree and settled on Eucalyptus pellita, which appeared to be less “weedy” than the acacia variety. Tiwi Land Council chief executive Brendan Ferguson.
“Tiwi people were much happier to see that there would be less environmental impact on their country,” he said.
Native to north-east Queensland, this tree, with its tough bark and deep roots, is more resistant to fires and cyclones and is suitable for high-value timber products.
Heechung Sung, head of natural capital at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, said the long-rotation plantation would generate carbon credits, a crucial source of income to cover infrastructure and planting costs as the trees grow.
Carbon credits are awarded to projects that absorb carbon, and these credits can then be purchased by companies and organizations that want to cancel their own emissions.
While a source of financing for reforestation and other carbon sequestration projects, the integrity and effectiveness of carbon credits have been called into question.
Ms Sung said the credits generated by the Tiwi project would provide a high level of integrity, with the plantation methodology supporting real emissions reductions by supporting the planting of new trees that extract atmospheric carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.
“It is very difficult to implement brand new plantation forestry projects without the reaction of carbon markets,” he told AAP.
Ms Sung said the project’s financial structure would support Tiwi people’s self-determination.
“It was really important that they took ownership of the project, both in terms of revenue and risk, because it is their country’s responsibility.”
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