What is the Permanent Forest Sinks Initiative?
[Content provided by MAF Policy:]
The Permanent Forest Sink Initiative (PFSI) allows landowners to earn income by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere via afforestation.
The PFSI is a new business opportunity in which landowners can earn income by “carbon farming”. Because this activity does not necessarily require roads to be built or trees to be harvested, it is particularly well suited to isolated and erosion-prone land.
Kyoto-compliant exotic forests established after 17 October 2002 (the date the policy was first announced) and Kyoto-compliant indigenous forests established from 31 December 1989 would be eligible to enter the PFSI. Mature indigenous forest is not covered by the PFSI.
Key features of the PFSI:
- The initiative is voluntary;
- Landowners who meet the requirements will receive tradeable Kyoto Protocol compliant emission units;
- Landowners will have to meet all costs associated with generating emission units and agree to replace any units should there be a decrease in the carbon stored in the forest;
- These rights and obligations will be formalised in a contract between landowners and the Crown. These contracts will be registered against land titles and will bind all future landowners;
- Participants in the PFSI will be eligible for East Coast Forestry Project grants on target land on the East Coast;
- To qualify for emission units, the new forest must be “direct human induced … through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources”;
- Timber will be able to be removed on a continuous canopy basis;
- Landowners who deliberately breach the harvesting restrictions (that is, harvesting outside the allowable limits) will be required to replace emission units for the CO2 released, plus make a penalty payment;
- Should the Kyoto Protocol no longer allow emission units to be generated from these forests, then the harvesting restrictions will be removed. However, to the extent that CO2 emission liabilities remain in respect of units already claimed, these liabilities will need to be met by landowners if the CO2 is released into the atmosphere at some future point;
- The PFSI is administered by MAF’s Indigenous Forestry Unit.
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