Replanting native forests and woodlands vegetation on Indigenous lands, especially across southern and eastern Australia, could help restore the nation’s native vegetation in places where it is needed, as well as store significant amounts of carbon, according to a new study.

The study, published in PLOS|ONE, concluded that bush replanting or regeneration could also provide a source of income and other benefits for Indigenous communities.

These benefits include the opportunity to work on country, increased knowledge and training, improved health and enhancing their management of traditional lands.

The team of researchers says that some of the 92Mha of Australia cleared since European settlement have the potential to be replanted or regenerated with native forests and woodlands. At Australia’s 2011-2012 carbon trading price of $23/tonne, 9.7 Mha of Indigenous land could be profitably used for carbon-farming to store the equivalent of 83Mt of carbon dioxide.

As well as storing carbon, the selections of revegetation areas was aimed at restoring each heavily cleared native vegetation type to at least 30 per cent of its pre-European settlement extent.

Repost of: Benefits of bush regeneration stack up fir environment and communities | Ecos Magazine 
See more ~ Biodiverse Planting for Carbon and Biodiversity on Indigenous Land | PLOS|ONE