Carbon Farmers Of Australia Australian Soil Carbon Grower Register
 
 
Welcome to the Australian Soil Carbon Grower Register. This service is for landholders seeking to trade in soil carbon.
 
You can REGISTER NOW or get MORE INFORMATION by choosing these options.
 
Australian Soil Carbon Grower Register is a service of Carbon Farmers of Australia (CFA), an integrated trading company that is owned by growers. All growers trading soil carbon through CFA have a right to a share of profits, based on their investment.
 
CFA’s principals have been at the forefront of the campaign to give landholders access to soil carbon trading since 2005.
 
NB. Registration on the Australian Soil Carbon Grower Register is subject to conditions and registration alone does not entitle any individual to trade.
 
What is Soil Carbon?
 
Soil Carbon is that part of the soil that is or has been alive. It is present in litter, roots, insect life, microbes, carbohydrates, fungi, acids and humus. It is also found in soils as carbohydrates, fats, waxes, alkanes, peptides, amino acids, proteins, lipids and organic acids. Soil carbon is produced by biological activity of microbes and fungi, stimulated by the action of roots of plants as they push down through the soil, retreating when the foliage above ground is grazed or harvested, then pushing down through the soil again as the foliage regrows. (There is also mineralised Carbon in the soil which is not organic.) Soil carbon is created when CO2 is absorbed by vegetation, the Oxygen is released and the Carbon is used to make living tissue, such as vegetation, animals that eat vegetation, and humans that can eat both. Some of the retained Carbon returns to the atmosphere as CO2 from respiration (eg. plants ‘breathe out’ CO2 at night). Some of the retained Carbon returns to the atmosphere as CH4 or Methane from the rotting of dead vegetation. But much of the Carbon taken in by the plant enters the top layer of the soil and is held there as humus, and some of it is carried further down to deeper layers of the soil where it can be held for hundreds of years. Depending on what is grown in the soil and how the soil is managed, it can store large amounts of Carbon or it can release large amounts of Greenhouse gases. It is the landholder who decides what the soils contribute to Climate Change.
 
What is Carbon Trading?
 
Carbon trading is the system adopted by the nations of the world to bring down emissions of greenhouse gases and remove existing emissions from the atmosphere. (Australia and America are the only countries not involved.) The United Nations negotiated targets for emissions reductions with each country. The nations then issued targets for industries and companies. Companies that cannot reduce their emissions to meet their target (or “cap”) must purchase “credits” from organizations that have been able to ‘sequester’ (or remove and store) CO2. This is called “Carbon Trading”. Farmers can sequester carbon in soil by “Carbon Farming”. (See “Carbon Farming Basics)
 
 Can I sell my Soil Carbon?
 
Yes. Australian Farm Soil Credits are being purchased through Carbon Farmers of Australia, You can apply to be
registered as a Carbon Farmer here [link]. As a registered Carbon Farmer you become eligible to submit parcels of land for soil carbon trading through a range of trading schemes. Most of these schemes are still passing through the final stages of development. Only one is trading: Australian Farm Soil Credits.
 
 What are Australian Farm Soil Credits?
 
Australian Farm Soil Credits are trading units that can be sold on the fast-growing ‘voluntary’ market in Australia and internationally. Voluntary buyers are not seeking to offset their emissions to meet a ‘cap’ or target. They are consumers and corporations concerned about the future of the planet and who want to do something about Global Warming. Corporations also choose carbon credits to promote their brands. Australian Farm Soil Credits are not measured by direct measurement of the amount of soil in a piece of ground. (No direct measurement system is operating yet.) They are determined by “soil carbon indicators” or markers that indicate soil carbon is increasing. Indicators used include changes in land management such as till to no-till, cropping to pasture, conventional grazing to controlled grazing. We have scientific evidence that these changes increase the soil carbon in the topsoil and below.
 
Australian Farm Soil Credits are called “provisional carbon credits”. This means the amount of carbon sequestered is guaranteed by means of a conservative estimate of area required to store it. Once direct measurement becomes possible, the surface area will be scaled to more accurately reflect the actual carbon stored. By this means both the buyer and grower can be assured they are being fairly treated.
 
Who is Carbon Farmers of Australia?
 
Michael & Louisa Kiely are the principals of Carbon•Farmers™, a company that aggregates and sells soil carbon credits. The Kielys are Convenors of the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming, a farmers’ and citizens’ movement which was instrumental in getting soil carbon trading recognised as a major solution to Climate Change. They are also principals of CarbonCredited™Brands, a service which helps corporations become carbon neutral while taking their stakeholders on the journey. They have been regular speakers at the “Managing The Carbon Cycle” Forums around Australia which started in 2005. They have also been delegates at many high level symposia in Australia and the USA. They led a fact-finding delegation to the USA on behalf of Australian farmers in 2006. While there they negotiated the first order for soil carbon credits from the Chicago Climate Exchange. They attended workshops, briefing sessions and meetings with members of 3 of President George W. Bush’s 7 ‘regional partnerships’ of states whose senior scientists are preparing the USA’s geologic and land management sequestration strategies. Michael appeared as an expert witness before the NSW Premier’s Greenhouse Advisory Panel and the NSW Department of Primary Industries Climate Risk Management Project. He has also been consulted by the NSW National Party on climate change policy matters. They Kielys are members of the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy.
 
 
Carbon Farming can give growers additional income while rewarding them for changes in their land management that restores soil health and farmland Biodiversity.
 
Page Contents:
 
  1. • What is Soil Carbon?
  2. •What is carbon trading?
  3. •Can I sell my carbon?
  4. •What are Australian farm soil credits?
  5. •Who is Carbon Farmers Of Australia?
 Soil Carbon Trading 
Online Marketing
Career & Business Training
Audit List