Upper Snowy Landcare Network

Co-Designing for Carbon

Partnering with CarbonSMART to co-design a workshop aimed at enabling local landholders to deliver environmental plantings for carbon credits.

Capacity building - LP23-014

The issue

Many Landholders across the Snowy Monaro have witnessed the recent and rapid purchasing of land by large carbon emitters, with the intention of using the land to offset their emissions through the sale of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). In response to this, USLN ran two information sessions in 2024-25 to bring knowledge to the region on this new commodity. Since then, there has been some uptake of Landholders starting carbon projects, but it remains a difficult space to navigate, with high input costs and high risk. From here, we didn’t have a way forward in supporting landholders further.

The solution

Towards the end of 2025, we were approached by Landcare Australia, who were interested in building on the groundwork of these previous workshops. We started having discussions with their CarbonSMART team, which delivers carbon projects under the ACCU scheme. We collectively saw an opportunity to enable more environmental plantings to go forward in our area, so began working to codesign a workshop aimed at identifying and enabling eligible landholders to deliver environmental planting projects. Early on, we had limited traction with landholders and soon concluded that the needs of the area had evolved. As such we needed to take a flexible approach to work out what stakeholders needed at this time in order to go forward with plantings, and decide how we could facilitate that.

The impact

By continuing to collaborate and engage interested stakeholders, we were able to take the idea of a workshop and reconstruct it into three different, and more suited knowledge sharing events, including one on one consultation and site visits with landholders already progressing and interested in the market, a workshop tailored to financial advisors, and a decentralised workshop for absentee landholders. Remaining flexible and listening to the needs of stakeholders, we were able to continue to build the knowledge basis of the carbon industry in our area and mentor interested landholders in suitable and effective next steps.

Author: Magdalene Lemcke

Key facts

  • The attached map centered on the Monaro shows high yielding carbon areas in yellow to bright green. Purple being ineligible.
  • The Monaro has been identified, nationally, as a high carbon yielding area, attracting large carbon emitters to buy land for carbon offsetting. USLN has since been interested in enabling local landholders with the knowledge to also enter this market.
  • When weighed up against local climate, high input costs, and high risk in establishing, carbon plantings were not such an attractive investment
  • The environmental planting model of carbon capture is attractive to Landcare as it supports local biodiversity and landscape function
  • Working alongside CarbonSMART has meant USLN can continue to support landholders with knowledge about carbon plantings and continue to encourage environmental plantings to rehabilitate our landscapes

Project Partners