Conference evolves to meet carbon farming challenges and opportunities

This is branded content for Carbon Farmers of Australia.

Carbon Farmers of Australia are well known for their highly informative and educational National Carbon Farming Conferences and expos, the last being the highly successful May 2022 event.

These are organised and hosted by Louisa Kiely, Director of CFA (now proudly a BMO Radicle company), who has lobbied for and helped establish the farm-based carbon offsets industry.

Louisa has long held the view that farmers are the VIPs facing the climate challenge.

"We all know that when agriculture fails, the whole society fails," Ms Kiely says.

"The extremes of droughts, fires, and flooding is intensifying, and we need to help our farmers rise to these challenges.

"It's about future-proofing land, livelihoods and food security, using the Carbon Markets to facilitate this transition."

To meet this challenge, and capture opportunities both existing and emerging, the conference is evolving.

"It's now obvious that we need all solutions," Ms Kiely said.

"Other nature-based solutions are being identified such as improving water quality; tree carbon is expanding and evolving - plantings, forestry, and integrated farm activities are all undergoing an evolution in methods; new soil carbon methods are coming; and of course, biodiversity, under the government's Nature Repair bill, introduced to parliament this week."

It's this push for more solutions that led to the evolution from a carbon farming conference to the inaugural Nature-Based Solutions Conference & Expo.

The expansion called for a bigger location and venue - it will be held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre in July. The event also incorporates the one-day Soil Carbon Summit.

"We want to make the carbon market more accessible for farmers from all over Australia - east, west, north and south, and for international attendees," Ms Kiely said.

"We welcome all practitioners to the Inaugural Nature-Based Solutions Conference & Expo - who want to improve their soil health, remain resilient in the face of a changing climate, and find new markets for these activities."

There is worldwide attention and demand for greater action to mitigate climate change. As farmers control over 50 per cent of the land mass, CFA argues that they have the most potential via natural systems to mitigate the warming effect.

Australia has a system that allows farmers to earn an Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) for activities that meet government requirements. The market is worth $3 billion to the economy, and the Australian Government now has much more ambitious targets for lowering emissions and sequestering carbon in soils and vegetation.

"This conference gives landholders and farmers the most up to date information on these emerging markets, all in one place, delivered by experts, in plain English.

"This opportunity is not available in any other forum," Ms Kiely concluded.

This is branded content for Carbon Farmers of Australia.