Woodside and Greening Australia have built on their existing relationship by signing an agreement to source and lease portions of farmland in Western Australia for integrated native tree planting projects.
In the first year of the new initiative, Woodside and Greening Australia will target up to 7,500 hectares within areas of the Wheatbelt and South West regions of Western Australia including Brookton, Cranbrook, Mingenew, Moora and Katanning.
The land will be used for environmental planting, a method of capturing carbon by planting a biodiverse mix of native trees.
By working collaboratively with landholders, the native tree planting projects will be designed to improve biodiversity, reverse land degradation, increase farm profitability, build capacity for jobs in regional communities and support Indigenous enterprises.
The new agreement follows the success of Woodside and Greening Australia’s partnership to co-create large-scale native tree planting projects which launched in 2019.
That program resulted in Woodside and Greening Australia planting 3,000 hectares during 2020 and 2021 on three Woodside-owned properties in Western Australia: Cowcher, Sukey Hill and Manalling Springs.
Woodside CEO, Meg O’Neill, said the agreement was a further demonstration of Woodside’s commitment to a lower-carbon future.
“This builds on our existing partnership with Greening Australia and we look forward to these projects generating quality carbon offsets. Not only will the new projects be an important part of Woodside’s expanding carbon offset portfolio, they will deliver value to regional Western Australia in the form of new jobs and opportunities, particularly for local Indigenous enterprises,” Ms O’Neill said.
Greening Australia CEO, Brendan Foran, commented: “Through our joint accomplishments to date, it is clear the collaboration between Greening Australia and Woodside has the capability to restore the Western Australian landscape at scale. Our planting projects support biodiversity, enhance productivity for degraded farming systems, and sequester carbon, whilst also supporting local communities.”
“As part of this new initiative, our spatial modelling has identified priority landscapes where there is the greatest potential to sequester carbon and return life to landscapes for combined environmental, economic and community benefits.”
Woodside’s carbon offset portfolio will play an important role in meeting its corporate targets to reduce net equity scope 1 and 2 emissions by 15 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030, below a baseline of average annual emissions from 2016 to 2020.
