About the conference
Carbon Farmers of Australia (CFA) introduced the Inaugural Nature-Based Solutions Conference & Expo in 2023. CFA previously hosted the only regional conference dedicated to supporting the carbon farming industry – the National Carbon Farming Conference & Expo – for the benefit of rural and regional Australia. Many lasting connections were made.
An new era has begun
Returning by popular demand to Albury in regional NSW is the 2024 Nature-Based Solutions Conference & Expo! The Inaugural conference was held in Brisbane in July 2023. Over 400 attendees and 40 exhibitors explored holistic answers to the climate challenge.
As climate change marches forward, and the effects on the land intensify, nature-based solutions are being identified as part of the mitigation:
Tree Carbon
Tree Carbon is also expanding and evolving – plantings, forestry, and regrowth are all undergoing an evolution in methods. The timber industry looking for its future supply.
Agriculture
Farmers control over 50% of the land mass. And soil remains the largest carbon sink over which we have control. New, integrated farming methods are coming.
Biodiversity
AND of course, the great connector. But howis it going to be integrated into the carbon markets? What environmental standards will be used?
About your host
Carbon Farmers of Australia have been pioneers in the carbon farming industry. Experience counts.
Carbon Farmers of Australia helped establish the farm-based carbon offsets industry
- Campaigned and lobbied since 2005 for farmers’ rights to sell carbon they grow in soils, store in trees, and reduce on-farm emissions
- Made first sales of Australian soil carbon credits in March 2007
- Staged the world’s first Carbon Farming Conference, Mudgee 2007. 2022 marked the tenth!
- Launched the first formal training program on soil carbon 2008
- Wrote and published the first Carbon Farming Handbook 2009
- Helped secure $26 million in funds for research to soil carbon for trade
- Granted an Australian Financial Services Licence for Carbon Trading, 2012
- Participated in the Emissions Reduction fund with close to 200 000 hectares under Government Contracts with Farmers
- Foundation Signatory of the Carbon Market Institute’s Code of Conduct for Carbon Agents
- Opened Carbon Farmers of Nepal. Developing projects in developing countries
- Currently researching all new options outside the ERF for Australian and overseas farmers to enter the carbon trade and be rewarded for their ecosystem services.
Louisa Kiely, B. Ag.Eco
Louisa, Director of Carbon Farmers of Australia, obtained her Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from the University of New England. She worked in the market research industry as a field supervisor while bringing up her 3 children. Together with her husband Michael, in 1991-2003 Louisa established and grew a city based marketing agency from zero to 55 employees. In this business, she was Director and General Manager of Boomerang! Integrated Marketing & Advertising.
Intent on following her first choice of career, she studied for the Advanced Diploma of Farm Management at Sydney University (Orange), trained in Holistic Management, and from 1998 to 2017 she was a woolgrower in the Wellington NSW district, growing fine Merino Wool.
She was selected by the Central Western Catchment Management Authority as one of 10 highly innovative landholders in the Catchment, to be trained in farm planning and soil restoration. Through this training, she and Michael became convinced that soil carbon could solve many agricultural, environmental, and climate change problems.
She co-founded the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming in February 2006 to lobby for the right of Australian landholders to trade on the emissions offset market the credits they can earn by sequestering carbon in their soils. She has since traveled throughout Australia and internationally meeting scientists and farmers and spreading the word about Carbon Farming.
She was invited to be a delegate at a Climate Change and Conservation Farming Conference in LaFayette, Indiana, organised by the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation. She was also a delegate at the National Carbon Offset Coalition Conference in Bozeman, Montana. She is co-founder of Carbon Farmers of Australia Pty Ltd (CFA). CFA also published the world’s first Carbon Farming Handbook.
Seeking to build bridges with the scientific community, she organised two Soil C Summits between Scientists and Farmers, in Dubbo and Orange NSW. And as co-founder of CFA, she organised and ran the world’s first Carbon Farming Conference & Expo in November 2007. In 2019 the 9th National Carbon Farming Conference & Expo, the biggest yet with delegates from every state in Australia and from all over the world, was held.
She developed the “CarbonCredited™” brand for wool and recruited woolgrowers into this emissions reduction program. Louisa has been recognized for her work and was chosen as runner up in the 2008 NSW Rural Woman of the Year. She has also sat on the board of the Regional Development Australia Committee – Orana Region. This intergovernmental committee was set up to ensure the future strength and development in rural and regional Australia.
As director of Carbon Farmers of Australia Pty Ltd, she was a part of a consortium of 3 companies that developed the first Soil Carbon Methodology submitted to the Carbon Farming Initiative process. Carbon Farmers of Australia also offers farm-ready training in Carbon Farming and Trading.