NOFO: Funding for Carbon Planting Projects 2025 (Australia)

Objectives

• They are investing $5 million in Living Carbon grants to assist eligible applicants in delivering carbon abatement through planting projects in 3 regions in NSW:
  • The Riverina Local Land Services region
  • The North Coast Local Land Services region
  • The MidCoast Local Government Area.

Funding Information

• Funding of up to $200,000.

Eligible Costs

• Eligible costs include:
  • soil preparation (such as through ripping or augering)
  • fencing materials and labour for standard stock fences, funded up to 50% of the total fencing costs, not exceeding 50% of your total grant request
  • direct seeding costs, seeds and direct seeding
  • tube stock
  • tree protection material such as tree guards
  • planting of tube stock, including the installation of tree protection
  • Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme (ACCU) Scheme and Accounting for Nature (AfN) costs, set funding amount of $5000.

Ineligible Costs

• Weed control at any stage of your project, including material or labour
• Any site maintenance, as outlined in your planting plan and as required for both the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme (ACCU) Scheme and Accounting for Nature (AfN) methods to be appropriately met
• Mandated communication activities
• Equipment of any kind (for example, infrastructure, site preparation equipment, fencing equipment, weed spraying equipment, wildlife cameras, among others.)
• Any initial maintenance requirements as outlined in your planting plan
• Project management tools or time
• Project monitoring or reporting tools or time
• Debt financing or investing of money in exchange for equity in start-ups
• Expenditure on the acquisition of land for a project
• Items that can reasonably be considered as business-as-usual operational costs, including but not limited to:
  • rent, maintenance costs and utilities
  • marketing, communications, promotional costs and website design
• Business-as-usual staff costs such as salaries, redundancy or retirement benefits, workers compensation payments, professional fees or memberships
• Activities carried out or committed to before your grant is offered and accepted
• Legal costs associated with a consortium, disputes or funding arrangements not agreed to as part of your funding deed
• Research projects into Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme (ACCU) Scheme method viability or development
• Maintenance of equipment and materials associated with your grant project
• Administration or mandatory communication costs

Eligible Projects

• A suitable project would:
  • Plant between 10 and 200 hectares of appropriate species on your land
  • Plant with the aim of revegetating habitat for threatened or iconic species endemic to your area
  • Deliver on and comply with all Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) Scheme and Accounting for Nature (AfN) method requirements, beyond the lifetime of your grant.

Deliverables

• Deliverables include:
  • Completed and endorsed planting plan
  • Registered and certified Environmental Account with Accounting for Nature (AfN)
  • Evidence of Clean Energy Regulator’s approval of a year 1 report through the ACCU Scheme
  • Evidence of biodiversity assessment to provide data against planned project outcomes
  • Mandatory communication requirements
  • A budget outlining planned spend vs actual spend, including co-funding and in-kind funding over the lifetime of the grant

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, applicants must be located in the NSW Riverina Local Land Services region, and be one of the following:
  • A private landholder who is the proponent of the registered carbon project
  • An Aboriginal organization or Traditional Owner group that owns or has legal right to the land and who are the proponent of the registered carbon project
  • A public land manager with pre-application approval from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Ineligibility Criteria

• Landholders outside of the Riverina Local Land Services region
• NSW National Parks

For more information, visit Australian Government.