University of Ballarat
Project Name: Oil Mallee Company
Location: Western Australia
Theme(s): Air and climate change

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 Department of the Environment and Heritage

Oil Mallee Company

Planting trees for carbon sequestration

Contents

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The Oil Mallee Company arose out of a group of farmers working with State organisations to combat rising salinity in Western Australian agricultural land. Recently, mallees, a form of Eucalypt, have become the new weapon against the Greenhouse Effect. This is a story about local action going international for global benefit.

In the beginning…

Western Australian agricultural land is drastically under threat from rising salinity. The cause? Large scale tree clearing over the past 200 years. In 1997 a group of WA farmers decided to do something about it. These farmers formed the Oil Mallee Association of WA, and worked with the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM). CALM had been researching the benefits of growing mallees as a short term woody rotational crop capable of providing both environmental and economic benefits namely combating the problem of rising salinity and oil production.

In the past two years, planting of mallees has taken a new direction: using trees as a carbon sink to offset carbon emissions created by a range of industries including electricity, fuel production and mining. 		 
   

Combating salinity through the Oil Mallee Association

Initial research by CALM
In 1992/3 CALM conducted research into tree species containing high percentages of oils with an important compound called “cineole”. While eucalyptus oil is used in a variety of everyday products including pharmaceuticals, cineole provides the basis for many of the solvents used in everyday cleaning products and industrial strength detergents.

CALM's research involved using trial plots of mallees native to Western Australia known for their oil content. The individual trees with the highest oil content were harvested of their seed to develop seed orchards. This provided a sustainable industry with the best possible provenances of the species and thus built up a seed bank that could be grown into high oil producing trees.

            

Photo: Linda Darby

At the same time, CALM were looking for trees that:

  • were capable of being integrated into existing agricultural systems;
  • could be planted on a large scale;
  • could survive in medium to low rainfall areas (less than 50mm/yr);
  • required minimal ongoing management, little or no fencing;
  • were resistant to stock; and
  • most importantly, were able to utilise below ground water sources and contribute to the lowering of the water table.
 

Re-foresting helps to reduce the amount of water reaching the watertable and lower the risk of soil salinity. The idea was that plantations of these specially chosen trees could be planted through areas in danger of going saline for the purposes of reducing the water table and producing eucalyptus oil.

Founding the OMA and OMC
A group of farmers who had assisted with the CALM trials and early plantings during the early to mid 1990's founded the Oil Mallee Association of Western Australia. In 1998 the OMA received a $2.2 million grant from the Australian Government's Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) to:

  • propagate, plant and maintain plantings of mallees; and
  • increase the number of plantings throughout the WA wheatbelt by encouraging farmers to plant on a larger scale than had been done previously.

For 10 years farmers have planted mallees in anticipation of developing a fully sustainable industry based around the use of short rotations where the trees are coppiced for financial return. Farmers were also aware that the trees were a valuable Landcare tool in managing groundwater issues on their farms. To date, considerable work has been done to attempt toattract private industry to the wheatbelt to utilise the product, as well as developing harvesting technologies and new products.

There have been many good intentions but few real opportunities due to a number of factors:

  • the large scale of the salt affected areas in the WA wheatbelt;
  • distance from markets; and
  • the ongoing problem of mallee biomass being of low density and value.

These are and continue to be major issues for this fledgling industry.

In order to develop the oil mallee industry the Oil Mallee Company (OMC) of Australia was formed as the commercial arm of the OMA in an effort to:

  • attract private investment to the industry; and
  • to specifically take on tasks relating to industry development, including marketing and research.

This is a role the OMC carries on today. With the formation of the OMC, the OMA continues to:

  • provide a network for growers to work together in developing the industry further,
  • lobby government; and
  • establish policy and guidelines for the ongoing improvement of mallee plantings and the industry as a whole.

Local problems tackled by local people

The OMA supports local people to deal with localised problems. That means farmers supporting
farmers. To plant trees you need a supply of trees, somebody to plant them, and the knowledge of how to plant and maintain them. Since the Industry commenced, nine nurseries have been set up throughout the six regions of the wheatbelt, supplying locally owned and grown seedlings to local farmers. Locally based Regional Managers assist these nurseries in marketing and providing the technical expertise necessary to establish and maintain the trees. Under the guidance of

“We wanted to use locals because that's where the future is”
(Ben Roberts)

the OMC, this team forms the core of the “Seedling Pipeline”, a seedling extension program that support farmers with information and offer seedlings at a reasonable price. Under this scheme, farmers carry out all operations associated with the establishment and management of the plantings themselves.

Local contractors are used to carry out all the works associated with large-scale privately funded plantings. One contractor identified with OMA's vision for wide-scale planting and invested over $30,000 in a mechanical planter! The land owners are also paid to spray their own trees, normally a high out-of-pocket expense for the land owner.

 
 

One aim of the Oil Mallee Company is to keep the work at the level of farmers. They are there to help the farmers, work with the farmers and for the farmers. In 2003, farmers through the OMA owned 25% of the Company.

A small local company moves global

The extent of the salinity problem in Western Australia is such that any attempt to make a difference needs to be on a large scale. That means many trees planted over a large area, preferably with the ability to be integrated into existing agricultural systems without providing excessive competition which might reduce a farmers return on their land. Any industry wanting to work at this scale needs large investors to provide the money for carrying out works. The OMC was approached by Japan's second largest power company, Kansai. Kansai paid OMC to plant 1,000 hectares of mallees for the purpose of carbon sequestration to offset the carbon emissions produced as part of their power generation activities. The Kansai investment to the wheatbelt economy exceeded $2.2 million.

Planting mallee for carbon sequestration
As a power company, Kansai produces a variety of carbon based emissions including both carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, both damaging greenhouse gases that are emitted (released into the atmosphere) during the generation of electricity through the burning of coal and other fossil fuels (see Condrington Wind Farm Case Study).

Carbon emitting companies are beginning to think about using carbon sinks to offset these emissions in locations all over the world. As a global environment, the activities occurring in one part of the world affects the rest of the world.

Carbon enters the atmosphere from power stations and natural chemical processes as carbon based gases, such as carbon dioxide. Some of these gases, mainly carbon dioxide, is taken from the atmopshere by plants. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air through a process called photosynthesis: the carbon dioxide combines with sunlight and water to make sugars and oxygen. This removal of carbon dioxide is called “carbon sequestration”. 		 

Try these websites for more information on the greenhouse effect:

As more fossil fuels are burned, more carbon dioxide is produced. Many of the gases remain in the atmosphere adding to the thickness of gases surrounding the earth. The blanket of gases prevent some of the sun's heat reflecting off the earth's surface from heading back out to space. As the layer of gas gets thicker, less and less heat can escape and earth's atmospheric temperature increases – this is called the “Greenhouse Effect”.

Deforestation world wide has heavily reduced the amount of carbon dioxide being removed from the atmosphere. Mallees planted on behalf of Kansai will “sequester” enough carbon in the form of carbon dioxide to “offset” some of the carbon being emitted through their power generation

industry. In broad terms, the mallee plantings act as a “carbon sink” because they take carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up in the leaves, trunk, branches and roots of the tree.

Additional Landcare advantage
An additional benefit is that the mallee trees are strategically placed to lower the watertable, thereby reducing soil salinity. Although 1,000ha is a significant step towards the broad control of salinity throughout the WA wheatbelt, it represents less than 0.1% of what is required to realistically control salinity on a broad scale.

The Kansai project has been the flagship for large scale, economic plantings of mallees and has been an important opportunity for OMC to gain the resources required to make a real impact on the rising salinity problem as well as providing the necessary credentials and gain credibility in gaining access to similar deals with other companies.

Why belts? 1,000 ha of trees equates to a total of 10,000 ha of farming land. Only 10% of the land offered by farmers is planted with belts of trees. Integrating the plantation in this way means that farming can continue, and stock can benefit from the shelter provided by the trees.
 

What makes mallee so good as a carbon sink?

Mallee trees have a special root system called a lignotuber. This is a very thick root, like a turnip or a carrot, where it stores the plant's food (which is mainly carbon based).

But unlike a carrot if the top part of the tree (trunk, branches, leaves) is damaged, say from fire or harvesting, the tree grows back. This process is known as coppicing.

They are also quick growing and especially well adapted to low rainfall.

 


Photo: Linda Darby
   

The future of planting mallees for carbon sequestration and combating salinity

The future of the Kansai and other potentially similar projects looks nothing but bright for the farmers. The land on which the trees have been planted has been leased for 20 years during which time the farmer will be paid an annuity, thus providing the farmer with a yearly income. At the end of the period, the lease may be renegotiated, but it is more likely the trees will revert to the ownership of the landholder.

This presents an added bonus for the farmer as mallees have many benefits other than reducing soil salinity – as wind breaks for land and stock, and in providing biomass to produce eucalyptus oil, activated carbon, wood composites, biomass fuel and liquid fuels as ethanol. For more information on the potential for oil mallees to produce commercial products, visit the Oil Mallee website.

New South Wales has embarked on their own internal carbon trading legislation (known as the NSW Greenhouse Abatement Scheme, NGAS) that could pave the way for the various State Governments to establish carbon trading opportunities using local emitters. To that end, OMC is involved in initial project work with several Australian companies to potentially establish up to 40,000ha of carbon sink mallees in NSW alone over the next several years.

For farmers in saline areas, like in agricultural areas of NSW, more trees in the ground means a reduction in salinity. This essentially means improved productivity and better financial returns for their products. As financiers to the joint venture, private investors will provide the money needed to buy, plant and maintain 40,000ha of trees, thereby meeting the large scale land care requirements of many farmers at zero cost for the farmer.

 

Useful Resources and Contacts

Acknowledgments

Completed with much appreciation to Ben Roberts, Field Operations Manager, Oil Mallee Company of Australia

Photos (unless otherwise indicated) provided by and used with permission of Ben Roberts, OMC.


Content coordinated by Ben Quinney, University of Ballarat. | CRISCOS Provider No 00103D| Disclaimers | Guestbook
Date researched: January 2004 | Case study initially prepared: April 2004