In outback Australia, years of drought have left many rural properties "flogged out" or degraded, but experts say they are now set to skyrocket in value due to their carbon potential
Carbon farming, a practice that focuses on destocking land to regenerate bush to store or sequester carbon, is an important pillar of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tim Lane, national client manager at property valuers Herron Todd White, said degraded land would be of greater interest to investors than well-maintained properties.
"Properties that don't have a lot of tree coverage, have soil degradation, not a lot of … grasses … they will be seen as more attractive," Mr Lane said.
Because land that is degraded has the potential to recover, any improvement would increase the amount of carbon sequestered on that property, making it potentially more valuable for the purpose of carbon farming than premium, healthy land.
Carbon project developers, including South Pole and Regenco, predict that with Australia's commitment to reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, demand for carbon credits will grow quickly.
"So it will be really interesting to see how they balance out the demand for carbon credits but also the cost of sort of remediating degraded land and where the trade-off is there," Manager of Agriculture with South Pole Alice Debney said.
Could you use carbon farming as a salary addition, utilising portions of unproductive land? Let me know your thoughts!
Read more on property valuer's bringing on carbon staff teams, smaller-scale opportunities, and restoring public confidence on ABC News.