Traprock Regeneration Project
Feathers, Fur, Forests, Farms and Families Protecting & restoring native woodlands in the Traprock District of Southern Queensland.
Regen Farmers Mutual Limited - Landscape Impact Program ran from Sept 2022 to June 2023 bringing together 12 farmers across the area west of Stanthorpe Queensland known as the Traprock.
The ‘Feathers, Fur, Forests, Farms and Families’ project grew out of a desire to help Australian farmers to engage in creating regenerative agricultural landscapes at scale. It brought together the Queensland Government’s Land Restoration Fund and the Regen Farmers Mutual to assist a group of farmers in the Traprock, Qld to explore ways they could catalyse economically sustainable environmental outcomes. The overarching goal was to investigate the effectiveness of a Landscape Impact Program in engaging farmers and communities in co-designing transactions with different sources of natural capital.
Box-Gum Grassy Woodlands and Derived Grasslands are ecological vegetation communities that have a ground layer of native tussock grasses and herbs, and a sparse, scattered shrub layer. White Box (Eucalyptus albens), Yellow Box (E. melliodora), or Blakey’s Red Gum (E. blakelyi) dominate the ecological community where a tree layer still occurs. This ‘critically endangered’ ecological community provides important habitat for many plants and animals, including rare and threatened species such as Superb Parrots, Regent Honeyeaters, and Squirrel Gliders. The Box-Gum Grassy Woodlands and Derived Grasslands were formerly widespread across South-Eastern Australia. Less than 5 per cent remains in good condition and much of it occurs in small and isolated patches. The remaining patches are still being lost due to clearing, weed invasion, and overgrazing - hence the ecological community’s listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). (from EPBC Act policy statement 3.5 - White box - Yellow box - Blakely's red gum grassy woodlands and derived native grasslands (Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2006))
The Traprock is known for its Box Gum Woodlands and is shown here overlaid on the previous extent of the ecosystem map.
In the Traprock region, BGGW ecosystems are also important habitats for Koalas and Quolls. More than 400 native plant species have been recorded as occurring within the community.
Andrew Ferrier is a local landowner involved in the project and is passionate about biodiversity. He speaks here about the project and the association of the Traprock Wool Growers Group.
What we did:
The Steering Group identified and approached potential pilot farmers and scoped the project delivery timeline.
● Onboarding - Regen Advisor Kym Wilson onboarding pilot farmers by walking them through the setup of their farm digital twin and identifying their environmental assets. Initial indicative assessment of their carbon sequestration and biodiversity opportunities.
● Desktop Research - The Steering Group with the assistance of SQLandscapes undertook an analysis of the types of strategies that could be undertaken and replicated across the Traprock. This resulted in a first-pass proposal for a transaction structure.
● Field trips - The Steering Group and Pilot Farmers undertook site visits to individual farms to test the prospective opportunities, particularly focusing on identifying the ideal regenerative outcomes. After this work, individual detailed assessments were undertaken on specific pilot farms by ecologists to refine the proposed approach.
● Public Sessions - We held 3 public information sessions and invited investors, supply chains, and philanthropic groups to understand the potential for a transaction and interact with the farmers.
The development of the proposed demonstration transaction has been undertaken after the completion of the program - and has culminated in 6 Avoided Clearing of Native Vegetation Carbon projects being presented to the Clean Energy Regulator.
As Regen Advisor to this group - Kym from Ready to Adapt Environmental Services has worked closely with farmers in the area to explore their natural capital and opportunities to realise carbon projects. The group are now actively recruiting additional farmers to the project to begin the process of expanding across the landscape and realising the vision of stepping stones becoming linkages within the landscape.
If you would like to explore how this might work for your property fillout the form below or get in touch with Kym directly.
Enquiry Form
