ports wetlands and rainforest regeneration. Carbon offsets therefore are
a way of neutralising the damage your existing carbon emissions are
doing, while you work on ways to more permanently reduce your car-
bon emissions.
Where to buy carbon offsets?
There are various organisations that offer carbon offsets for sale to gov-
ernments, businesses and consumers. The organisation Carbon Neu-
tral (https://carbonneutral.com.au/) which runs the Carbon Neutral
Charitable Fund (CNCF) plants trees in various places in Australia but
mostly in the WA wheat belt. This not only reduces greenhouse gas
emissions but also reduces the salinity in the soils by lowering the water
table and it improves biodiversity. This costs $25 per tonne of green-
house gas emissions. CNCF have a lot of experience in this area, hav-
ing planted 5.5 million trees across more than 4,200 hectares and 177
sites since 2001 as carbon offsets. Another carbon offset organisation
with a good reputation is Greenfleet (https://www.greenfleet.com.au/).
It is also possible to contribute money to community development pro-
jects in developing countries which reduce carbon emissions. One ex-
ample is World Vision Australia’s Farmer Managed Natural Regenera-
tion project which has led to hundreds of millions of trees being regrown
in Africa, most recently in Ethiopia. World Vision have written to us with
the following information about this project:
‘World Vision Australia is engaged with two community forestry
projects in Ethiopia that use Farmer Managed Natural Regenera-
tion (FMNR) as a way to restore their landscapes – and to thereby
generate carbon credits for sale. These funds are then returned to
the community for members to then access through a loan facility
and to support their livelihoods, e.g. by taking a loan to raise
goats for fattening or to invest in a solar panel for the house.
Our Sodo community-managed natural regeneration project has
carbon offsets that may be of interest to you and your church. ….
The initiative’s main focus has been to alleviate poverty for almost
10,000 people in the area, especially addressing income and food
security, through sustainable management of natural resources.
Rehabilitation of denuded areas, protection of steep slopes and
conservation of remnant mountain forest are slowly leading to
new income streams and also a new mindset – one of the goals
of FMNR. …
The downstream effects are tremendous: recovery of springs, re-
duced flooding of farm area, cleaner water, and improved water
security to those in the urban centre nearby. The forest’s biodiver
Carbon Action Project
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1 March 2020