Victorian Carbon Farming Program
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program Pilot has now closed. To receive updates about future opportunities from the program please sign up to the mailing list.
Sign up nowThe Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) Pilot was undertaken between July 2023 and December 2024 in North Central Victoria. The Pilot provided opportunities for private landowners, with assistance from project advisors, to develop and deliver carbon farming projects to reduce emissions and build resilience to a changing climate. The pilot supported private landholders to:
- plant woodlot, agroforestry and shelterbelt trees
- leverage opportunities available from timber, carbon or environmental markets
- realise on-farm co-benefits such as shade and shelter for stock, soil improvement or improved farm aesthetics
The VCFP Pilot has provided DEECA with key insights for future carbon farming program development, particularly on barriers faced by landowners in engaging with carbon farming in Victoria.
The Department is now working to ensure feedback from the pilot is reflected in new opportunities in 2025.
Landowners interested in learning more about Carbon Farming in Victoria are encouraged to register to attend an upcoming training session via the Carbon Farming Outreach Program .
Connect with us
To stay updated on program developments, please sign up to the Victorian Carbon Farming Program mailing list.
Or feel free to reach out to our team for any questions via carbonfarming@deeca.vic.gov.au.
Estimate your property’s carbon sequestration potential
CSIRO ‘s LOOC-C carbon abatement calculator can help in gaining a quick estimate of the amount of carbon a tree planting project might sequester on a Victorian property.
Landowners can use LOOC-C to select an area of land via a map, and then estimate the total tonnes of carbon abatement (in Australian Carbon Credit Units, or ACCUs) potentially available under a range of methodologies currently endorsed by the Clean Energy Regulator.
In 2023 the Victorian Government partnered with CSIRO to include Plantation and Farm Forestry activities, in addition to the suite of other methods that are endorsed by the Clean Energy Regulator and potentially eligible for funding under the commonwealth government’s ACCU Scheme.
More information
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) aims to support Victorian Landowners to plant agroforestry and shelterbelt trees on private land to sequester carbon and contribute to the state’s emissions reduction goals, including Victoria’s target to be a net zero emitter of carbon by 2045.
The program acknowledges the challenges Victorian rural Landowners have traditionally faced in accessing carbon markets. Recognising these challenges, the program has been designed so that Victorian Landowners have better access to incentives that support tree growing activities and ultimately deliver new income streams and other on-property benefits.
Beyond an expansion of the private forestry estate, the program also aims to develop private sector capacity to assist Landowners in maximising revenue from carbon, timber or other environmental markets via professional advice and assistance from Project Advisors registered with the program.
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) Pilot is the first phase of the VCFP and is running for 18 months from mid-2023 to late 2024.
The Pilot will test key facets of the program’s design ahead of a broader rollout to other areas of the state scheduled for 2024-25.
Projects approved for VCFP funding within the pilot phase will be contracted for delivery over a 10-year timeframe.
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) Pilot is not prescriptive with respect to tree species or management regime, however tree plantings must align with the objectives of the program.
Projects that elect to establish environmental plantings must demonstrate that the plantings are well integrated into the property, such as in shelterbelts or riparian areas.
Environmental plantings that are not shelterbelts, riparian buffers or other integrated planting types, and have the primary purpose of broad (paddock) scale land conversion for biodiversity benefits, are excluded from the VCFP Pilot. Such projects may be eligible for the Bushbank program.
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) Pilot supports tree planting projects of a scale up to 100 hectares. While there is no defined minimum size for projects, no one planting block within a project can be smaller than 0.2 of a hectare.
Landowners must commit to retaining project trees funded through the Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) Pilot for a period of 10 years.
A Landowner must enter a contract with an RPA, and separately with the government, and allow the RPA to periodically access their land to undertake tree management activities and VCFP Pilot reporting requirements.
The meeting of reporting requirements under the VCFP may involve minimal requirements of Landowners such as taking photos of trees. The responsibilities of such obligations should be discussed between the Landowner and their RPA in the first instance.
The Victorian Carbon Farming Program (VCFP) Pilot places no ownership obligation on trees grown or carbon sequestered under the program. Landowners are free to negotiate the sale of timber or carbon assets at their discretion providing the trees remain in the ground for a minimum period of 10 years.