At a glance
- NSW’s five-year Blue Carbon Strategy (launched in 2022) supports coastal habitat restoration to store carbon, strengthen ecosystem resilience, and help communities adapt to climate change and sea-level rise.
- Key priorities include conserving and restoring blue carbon ecosystems, supporting projects on public, private and First Nations-managed land, embedding blue carbon in coastal planning, advancing research, and attracting investment.
- Demonstration projects at Duck Creek and Everlasting Swamp will restore tidal flows to regenerate mangrove and saltmarsh habitats, with Everlasting Swamp potentially abating up to 136,000 tonnes of emissions over 25 years while rehabilitating a degraded coastal wetland.
Blue carbon: a five year plan with five priorities
The New South Wales Government is pursuing the potential carbon abatement opportunities of blue carbon habitat restoration, launching a five-year blue carbon strategy in 2022.
The strategy identifies five priority areas for NSW Government action:
- conserving blue carbon ecosystems and supporting their adaptation and migration
- delivering blue carbon projects on public, private and First Nations peoples-owned and managed land
- embedding blue carbon in coastal and marine policy planning and management
- progressing blue carbon research
- promoting blue carbon investment.
With delivering new blue carbon projects as a priority, the NSW Government aims to remove barriers, and provide support, for blue carbon habitat restoration work. The Government will also progress two blue carbon demonstration projects both in northern NSW: one at Duck Creek Agricultural Research Station in Ballina and the Everlasting Swamp wetland complex on the Clarence River near Maclean.
The strategy also targets a streamlined approvals process for blue carbon restoration projects in NSW, exploring opportunities for a kelp forest restoration pilot project in the state, and increasing investment in blue carbon markets including piloting the first NSW Government-endorsed Blue Carbon financial instrument by 2025.
Duck Creek project
The Duck Creek project will remove the perimeter levee on a 13-ha paddock currently used for cattle grazing. Restoring tidal flows will allow the native mangrove and saltmarsh ecosystems to regenerate. The project will be registered under the blue carbon ecosystems method of the Australian carbon credit units scheme, and is designed to demonstrate how land owners of low-lying property can adapt to sea level rise by incorporating blue carbon farming into their agricultural business (Clean Energy Regulator 2022). The project received Federal funding in 2023 to deliver the project by 2026.
a video about the Duck Creek blue carbon project in northern NSW.
Everlasting Swamp project
At Everlasting Swamp, feasibility studies are underway to restore tidal flows to a 556 ha area of drained coastal wetland that has become one of New South Wales' most severely acid sulfate soil-affected sites due to historic drainage and floodplain modification. Within the broader Everlasting Swamp complex, up to 1,289 ha of land has been identified as suitable blue carbon habitat where tidal exchange could potentially be restored, making it one of the highest-potential blue carbon restoration sites in NSW. Full restoration of this broader area could potentially abate up to 136,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over 25 years.
Everlasting Swamp in northern NSW is a site with high potential for blue carbon.
- © OEHever swamp
Everlasting Swamp in northern NSW is a site with high potential for blue carbon.
© OEH
To cite:
This case study was prepared by NCCARF.
Please cite as: NCCARF, 2024: Building a blue carbon project runway in New South Wales. Case study for CoastAdapt, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Griffith University, Gold Coast.