Farmer Decision Making – the carbon economy

Rural Development Services is working with Private Forests Tasmania on a 12 month project to assist landholders to better understand carbon storage and trading issues on their farms. The project will enable farmers to learn how to invest in, grow, and manage farm forestry operations on their properties as part of their own climate change management practices.

The project has three main components:

  1. Conducting a survey to determine landholder understanding, perceptions and willingness to participate in carbon off-set projects and trading schemes;
  2. Development of four existing farm forestry plantations as demonstration farms to model carbon sequestration and wood production under future climate and economic conditions; and
  3. Development of a Carbon Plantations Tool Kit and 'investment pathways' materials to facilitate landholder participation in the emerging 'new carbon economy'.

The demonstration sites will be located in northern Tasmania and will be used for four field days to inform landholders and the community about farm forestry options in the new emerging economy.

The Carbon Toolkit will be published and available for all farmers.

RDS is responsible for three major components of the project:

  1. undertaking the survey work for the project and producing a comprehensive report on its findings;
  2. developing an Extension Framework and Communications Strategy for the project (including monitoring and evaluation components); and
  3. facilitating the development of the Investment Pathways materials.

The Carbon Plantations Project is funded by the Australian Government through its Forest Industries Climate Change Research Fund and is supplemented by contributions from project partners including: Private Forests Tasmania, CSIRO, Rural Development Services, AK Consultants, Livingston Natural Resource Services and AFG-TreeSmart.

Carbon Survey – Final Report [PDF 741 KB]

Carbon Survey – Appendix 1 [PDF 386 KB]

Carbon Survey – Executive Summary [PDF 208 KB]

Carbon Reports Launched – Media Release 2.12.10 [PDF 100 KB]