New carbon farming project to improve lives on WA's south coast
An Aboriginal corporation on the state's south coast is setting up a new carbon farming project to help improve the lives of its people.
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TVTranscript
00:00 It's been almost a decade since the native title rights of the Esperance Wujari people
00:07 were recognised.
00:08 The reality is that Wujari traditional owners are still a dispossessed group because most
00:13 of their country was taken and cleared to support the opening up of the agricultural
00:19 industry in Esperance.
00:20 So we had to look at creative ways in which we could become economically independent.
00:24 So they decided to buy a farm.
00:26 Two years ago they teamed up with Carbon Neutral and the Odenata Foundation to buy a 4,000
00:32 hectare property north of Esperance for $6.5 million.
00:36 It is unusual to see an on-market transaction happening that results in First Nations ownership.
00:44 It's now launching a rejuvenation project with the aim of planting 4.5 million trees
00:49 on the property.
00:51 An international cosmetics company is one of its first investors, providing $600,000
00:56 over three years, supporting another part of the project, carbon trading.
01:01 If we plant trees and we plant enough trees per hectare and they sequester carbon from
01:08 the atmosphere, then we can generate a carbon unit.
01:12 They aim to sell carbon units to companies to offset their emissions.
01:16 But Esperance Dalyurac has requirements about who it sells to.
01:20 Dalyurac has already said no to some intensive producers of fossil fuels that we're not interested
01:26 in a relationship.
01:27 The corporation wants to use the project proceeds to improve housing and health care.
01:32 The pathway to self-determination for Aboriginal people is a challenge across the whole of
01:36 Australia and we see this as a pathway for us to have those social determinants met.
01:42 It's a model they want to see replicated in other parts of the country.
01:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]