WA scientists are warning that
current practices in carbon
sequestration tree plantings
threaten biodiversity.
Image: iStockphoto

WA environmental researchers are calling on the state government to reconsider current methods of carbon sequestration and increase funding for research projects.
 
Carbon Neutral, a not for profit company attempting joint research projects with Murdoch University, says the current practice of mono-cultured plantings to absorb carbon dioxide is threatening WA’s biodiversity.

“If you put a large area under one species in order to maximise the carbon sequestration levels, you're not really producing the best environmental outcome,” says Carbon Neutral CEO Leo Kerr.

“The state government really needs to be doing more to recognise the value of trees to the biodiversity of our landscape and how we can integrate them back in. The research is just lacking in this field and that's why we are doing it.”

“Our research is aimed at measuring carbon in a variety of different species across a range of locations in the south west. Some of these plantings go back 20-30 years so were going to have samples from different time spans also,” he says.

“From this we can draw species specific data to allow for non destructive measurements in future sites across WA.”

“The second part is to work this in with remote sensing. The idea is that researchers will be able to access a website and key in GPS coordinates. From there you can see any site across WA and measure not only biomass but also the actual carbon content that has accumulated for each year that has passed.”

“At the moment this has to be done physically, which is time consuming and costly.”

Mr Kerr says policy makers must address the value of this research with adequate funding or risk further damage to WA’s unique environment.

“Nothing has really been done to quantify all the benefits of biodiversity plantings and also consider their carbon sequestration abilities. We don’t have enough data on it,” he says.

“We lose five hectares of our arable wheat producing land per hour to salinity, which is a completely unsustainable model.”

Mr Kerr says identifying a financial sum for the collective benefits of biodiversity is the key to creating a greater understanding amongst the public.

“We are going to put a business proposal forward in the hope that all of these benefits be recognised and a value will be put on them. Then these recommendations will be considered in government decision making and policy will be developed accordingly,” he says.

“If we don’t come to a financial determination on the benefits of biodiversity, which people intuitively recognise, we will end up with species that are basically there to sequester as much C02 as possible.” 

WA’s southwest is one of only 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world, and the only recognised site in Australia.