MORE projects have been announced for the government trial that see farmers paid for planting native trees and shrubs.
The Carbon + Biodiversity program provides an additional income stream to farmers who improve biodiversity on their land. In the second round of the trial, $7.4m in funding has been offered to 53 projects and a total of $11.6m has been offered to almost 120 farmers across the two rounds.
Participating farmers are paid a biodiversity payment by the government, who will also cover some of the cost to establish the project. Farmers will also be able to get payments to access professional advice and will be able to retain carbon credits generated by their project.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the pilot was testing protocols for market mechanisms to buy and sell biodiversity service, as part of a broader plan to set up a voluntary biodiversity stewardship market underpinned by legislation.
"This pilot has shown that we can reward farmers for the stewardship of their land, by combining biodiversity outcomes with carbon projects," Mr Littleproud said.
"It is about delivering biodiversity outcomes, showing the market how farmers can get rewarded for that and providing an opportunity for corporates to participate."
"That's win-win for farmers and the environment and opens the door for corporates to invest in Australian agriculture."
Successful projects in round two were drawn from the following Natural Resource Management regions: Goulburn Broken (VIC), Northern and Yorke (SA), NRM South (TAS), Riverina (NSW), South Coast (WA), Fitzroy Basin (QLD).
The government recently reclassified income from carbon and biodiversity from off-farm income to on-farm production, which is expected to reduce taxes paid by farmers by $100m over four years.
This week, Mr Littleproud and future Agriculture Ministers were granted the power to veto on-farm native forest regeneration projects that take up more than one-third of a farm, if they have an adverse impact on agricultural production or regional communities.
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