Will farmers join the CFI? You don’t have to look far to
find people giving the 100 Years Rule the thumbs down:
Scientists
“Even a generous
interpretation of the treatment of permanence in this document [the CFI
consultation paper][1] seems very likely to exclude all sequestration practices."
- Dr Richard Conant, Smart
Futures Fellow at Queensland University of Technology and Ecosystem ecologist
at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University.
Academics
“A feature of the CFI is the requirement for
participating farmers to maintain any credited sequestration for 100 years
beyond the last date for which they receive payments under the scheme. This
creates considerable costs and uncertainties for farmers.”
- Dr David J Pannell, School of Agricultural and
Resource Economics, University of Western Australia,
Organic Farmers
“The current CDM permanence requirement of 100 years
is too long for most people to enter into a realistic contract. The idea of
contracts to guaranty activities for longer than most people’s lives is
unrealistic.”
- Andre Leu, Chairman, Organic Federation of Australia
NRM Networks
“From experience, and from comprehensive research
including global best-practice approaches, we believe that, as currently
proposed, the Carbon Farming Initiative will result in little uptake by
landholders.”
- Degree Celsius (Joint Venture model based on the 56
Regional NRM networks of Australia, enabling NRM activities of Australia to be
aggregated for both regional and larger scale delivery of climate mitigation
and abatement.)
NRM Networks
“The 100-year permanence rule is not grounded in any
biological reality, and simly sets a barrier too high for most… We believe that
the current framework could potentially result in little uptake.”
- Natural Resource Management Regional Leaders Group
(WA)
Indigenous Landholders
“We are particularly concerned by the treatment of
permanence as a 100-year commitment. Indigenous landholders will be reluctant
to take decisions that determine the economic futures of several generations of
descendants, as well as their ongoing relationships with ancestral lands. This
provision alone will deter many Indigenous and non-Indigenous land owners from
considering participation.”
- North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management
Alliance (Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Northern Land Council and Balkanu Cape York Development
Corporation.)
The Wool Industry
“It is impossible in practice to guarantee permanence
of land sector bio-sequestration offsets.”
- Australian Wool Innovation
Farmers Groups
“No farmer would be silly enough to agree to 100 years
for soil carbon or 100 years for anything. A finance lender would want to know
seriously the impact on the value of the property of agreeing to such a thing.”
- Carbon Farming & Trading Association’
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