In a country like Australia where we experience a broad range of climatic conditions; huge distances to travel; a broad range in the type and variety of different houses we live in; extreme temperature and rainfall variances and vastly different sources for electricity - hydro in some regions and brown coal in others – variations in individual carbon footprints are huge.

The average Australian household produces 18 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

Carbon Footprint Audits - can be carried out and certified by qualified and experienced researchers who measure and certify carbon emissions for individuals and for business.

Here is a basis, rule-of-thumb guide to help one estimate the size for their own annual carbon footprint

Motor vehicle - Estimate based on 25,000 km a year:

• Small car or hybrid 3-4 tonnes of CO2
• Medium car 4-6 tonnes of CO2
• SUV or light truck 6-8 tonnes of CO2
• Home heating 3-8 tonnes of CO2

Estimates for more personal factors:

• Food & drink 0.6
• Clothes and shoes 0.5
• Car manufacture 0.7
• Buildings/ furniture/ appliances 1.0
• Recreation & services 1.5
• Finance and Others 0.3
• Shares - public services 1.3
• Total secondary footprint 5.9 tonnes

One’s personal carbon footprint may be as much as 25 tonnes a year (not including airline travel).

So three (3) return short haul flights a Melbourne and Sydney or Melbourne and Hobart will add another 0.5 or 1.00 tonnes a year.

For further information visit: www.greenhouse.gov.au/fuelguide/index.html or www.greenhouse.crc.org./tools/calculators

GREENHOUSE FRIENDLY™ APPROVAL
A watertight guarantee is delivered to Customers by Greenhouse Friendly™ approval.

The Government proposes to use the Greenhouse Friendly™ administrative framework and standards for developing offset arrangements for the emissions trading scheme, including the approval of new offsets protocols.

An existing standard provides an established administrative structure for approving offset credits that meets exacting international standards.

MEASURING ABATEMENT
Greenhouse Friendly™ has a rigorous process for assessing and approving these methods to ensure projects meet the required standards.

The requirements for approval for offsets are: They must be (but not restricted to):

• Additional
• Appropriately calculated
• Properly & independently verified
• Permanent, and
• Regularly Monitored

A Deed of Approval is to be signed for PundaZoie™ by Greenhouse Friendly™ recognizing the Greening the Desert™ Program is an Approved Abatement Project.

Greenhouse Friendly™ Approved Abatement providers have the ability to provide carbon credits to:

• Any company, individual or organization looking for a high quality offsets;
• Greenhouse Friendly™ product and service providers to offset the greenhouse emissions associated with their certified product or service;
• Greenhouse Challenge Plus (GCP) Members as an offset in their greenhouse inventories or to meet greenhouse goals as GCP Members.

PundaZoie is proud to assist your business and your family to reach your carbon reduction goals.

PundaZoie's Greening the Desert™ projects are a win-win situation for industry, government, the public, the local environment and global climatic conditions.

Working in partnership with clients, the projects will produce environmental investments that reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide and at the same time, restore seriously depleted land.

THE OFFER
Greening the Desert™ projects offer the opportunity to:

1. Reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) as a counter to global warming; restoring, recovering and sustaining barren landscape that otherwise would remain drought-stricken and infertile.
2. Reduce one’s carbon footprint - using fully accredited abatement offsets conforming to the AGO’s Greenhouse Friendly™ initiatives established and operated under its Greenhouse Challenge Plus Program.
3. Offset greenhouse gas emissions through tree plantings.
4. Demonstrate concern by aiding in the restoration and sustained recovery of a landscape that otherwise would remain barren and infertile.
5. Contribute to the development of carbon sinks which facilitate the long term storage of carbon in forests.
6. Join a growing family of companies that support PundaZoie's carbon dioxide reduction efforts.

GREENHOUSE FRIENDLY™ APPROVAL
A testament to the quality of the Greening the Desert Program will be its approval by Greenhouse Friendly™ as part of the Federal Government's early abatement incentives policy for voluntary sequestration (prior to the commencement of compulsory emissions trading in Australia due in 2011).

Greenhouse Friendly™ approval means that Greening the Desert™ has project-specific methods to calculate baselines and measure abatement.

It can also use or adapt these methods for other programs in Australia or internationally, or develop new methods.

AGO approval means that Greening the Desert™ has been subjected to the highest possible level of scrutiny by the AGO and has received the benefit of a Deed of Approval, guaranteeing the quality of all offsets purchased from the Program. Duration of approval - Greenhouse Friendly™ offsets are approved for a defined period, after which projects must seek re-approval.

In the case of Greening the Desert™ it is for a minimum of 70 years, however the structure is designed to secure longevity for the new forests for a minimum of more than 100 years.

Offsets created arise as abatement actually occurs, while the re-approval process allows the continuing additionality of the project to be periodically assessed.

Thus project offsets increase incrementally increase over a lengthy period of time.

Greening the Desert™ Carbon Sequestration
Every day living contributes directly or indirectly to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases.

Terrestrial carbon sequestration credits - are the only form of carbon offsets that really removes carbon from the atmosphere as trees and grasses absorb carbon from the atmosphere and hold it (sequester) in their bodies and soils in which they grow.

The amount of carbon that is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered in the living trees is calculated by metric tonnes and then sold as carbon offset credits.

The soil has the capacity to store at least twice as much CO2 as the atmosphere.

Reforestation of cleared, mined or otherwise degraded or denuded lands; planting crops requiring nil or negligible tillage and planting long-lived tree species, can keep captured CO2 out of the atmosphere for many years.

Research has defined the scope, characteristics, specific attributes and carbon levels for a well-developed and fully documented carbon sequestration regime.

PundaZoie has used this research to cure the extensive land degradation and drought-stress in many areas such as Tasmania's Southern Midlands meaning, to make a difference, the project must be large-scale.

PundaZoie™ will cultivate plants and trees in arid and desert areas to generate an intense photosynthetic phenomenon, resulting in the multiplication of a huge vegetal mass of plants.

In any area, the amount of carbon stored by terrestrial sequestration varies - PundaZoie™ establishes "baselines" of current stocks for an area and forecasts changes for carbon storage normally taking place over time, as a vital first step.

Additional Benefits
The local, regional and environmental go beyond the sequestration of CO2 and include:

• Improved soil quality and productivity
• Better quality ground and surface water
• Enhanced biodiversity and wildlife habitats
• Buffering the area against drought
• Effective increase in rainfall.

Is terrestrial carbon sequestration the most effective way to begin to reduce the global effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide?
The IPCC - The United Nations Environment Program's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - states until advanced, cost-effective technologies are developed to reduce emissions, for the next 50 years, terrestrial carbon sequestration will be the most effective means of removing CO2 from the atmosphere

GREENHOUSE FRIENDLY™
Carbon sequestration has great potential for reducing the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on our environment.

PundaZoie projects will be highly successful and to protect our Customers, our approach has been to obtain all necessary Government approvals to ensure sustainability of the projects in the longer term.

APPROVAL
A watertight guarantee is delivered to Customers by Greenhouse Friendly™ approval.

The Government proposes to use the Greenhouse Friendly™ administrative framework and standards …… for developing offset arrangements for the emissions trading scheme, including the approval of new offset protocols.

An existing standard from this initiative provides an administrative structure for approving offset credits that meet exacting international standards.

A Deed of Approval is to be signed between PundaZoie and Greenhouse Friendly™ for recognition of the Greening the Desert™ Program as an Approved Abatement Project.

QUALITY
The quality of the Greening the Desert™ Program is attested to by Greenhouse Friendly™ approval as part of the Federal Government's early abatement incentives policy for voluntary sequestration (prior to the commencement of compulsory emissions trading in Australia due in 2011).

AGO scrutiny means that Greening the Desert™ is subjected to the highest possible level of scrutiny by the Australian Greenhouse Office ("AGO") as a signatory to a Deed of Approval, guaranteeing the quality of all offsets purchased from the Program.

TRUST
As a Greenhouse Friendly™ approved abatement provider, PundaZoie will have the ability to provide trusted carbon credits to:

• Any company, individual or organisation looking for high quality, trustworthy offsets.
• Greenhouse Friendly™ product and service providers to offset the greenhouse emissions associated with their certified product or service.
• Greenhouse Challenge Plus (GCP) Members as an offset in their greenhouse inventories or to meet greenhouse goals as GCP Members.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

Who is PundaZoie?
PundaZoie is an Australian owned company creating carbon credits by establishing and sustaining forest species and long-lived canopy trees in the harshest, driest terrain imaginable…..in locations where nothing else might grow.

This Program is called Greening the Desert™.

Everlasting life - "PundaZoie" is derived from two Greek words meaning "everlasting" and "life".

Founded - by Gabriel Haros and Anastasios Anastasiou, the PundaZoie Company Pty. Ltd. developed the Greening the Desert Program™ during the 1980's.

Haros is a Tasmanian businessman, a former State Parliamentarian (Tasmania) and a member of a prominent Tasmanian business and manufacturing family.

Anastasiou's knowledge of best practices for dry-farming techniques is soundly based given he has worked extensively in Australia in the olive growing industry and in Saudi Arabia, creating the Royal Gardens and growing semi tropical plants in the desert for consumption by both animals and humans.

He is currently employed as Director of the Greek Ministry of Agriculture on the island of Chios specializing in drought eradication programs for islands in the Mediterranean.

How does PundaZoie deliver Abatement Offsets?
PundaZoie uses deep-rooted, long-lived trees and crops requiring minimal water to sustain and restore farmland and provide forests that lend support for the establishment of crops that deliver regular cash harvests in times of drought and often where the soil is degraded by salinity.

These forests, known as carbon sinks, survive for many hundreds (or even thousands) of years. Unlike regular plantations, Greening the Desert™ forests are not felled for their timber.

What kind of plants, shrubs and trees does PundaZoie use?
For sequestration purposes and to create abatement, PundaZoie uses a variety of different long-living, slow-growing drought-tolerant tress with high canopies that are grown in strict conformity with Greenhouse Friendly™ requirements.

The variety and nature of these trees are adapted according to the many factors such as rainfall, soil characteristics, the topography of the land and a host of similar variables but they might be species such as acacias; carobs; mallees, figs; olives, almonds; walnuts etc. - the list is not exclusive.

Efficient, animal-based agriculture is sustained by legumes to provide high quality forage, well distributed throughout the growing season to counter drought-stress conditions. Legumes are easily conserved and are essential for the dairy, livestock and poultry industries.

Legume mediated symbiosis results in many millions of metric tons of fixed nitrogen each year in the USA alone and forage legumes improve soil structure and tilth and are important for soil conservation & reclamation. One such Medicago legume is Moon Trefoil, cultivated mainly in the Eastern Mediterranean regions of Spain, Canary Islands, Algeria, northern Tunisia and Italy.

The legumes used to support the Greening the Desert™ Project are edible for sheep, cattle, goats, alpacas, llamas and other animals. Its recovery rate (re-growth) is very quick, enriching the soil with nitrogen (N) being leguminous - preserving atmospheric nitrogen in its roots and cleaning the atmosphere of nitrogen.

The plants, trees and shrubs prevent soil erosion, having a root system that binds the soil. The shrubs are very hardy and frost-tolerant and retain rainwater, which is channelled into the cracks formed by the roots reaching a depth of 10-15 metres, where the water is retained and conserved by the roots.

They also source moisture from subterranean springs and aquifers.

The shrubs assist the retention of, surrounding vegetation, stimulating natural growth and restoring the landscape and neighbouring trees and plants enabling them to flourish under extreme drought stressed conditions.

Another legume used in the program is Medicago Marina, commonly known as Sea Medick.

The name is derived from the Ancient Greek word "Medike" - meaning "Medicago" or "Alfalfa" and is of the same genus as M. arborea with several advantages; growing readily in sandy soil; being salt tolerant; cold resistant (frost tolerant) and having a rich root system, with an extremely thick central root with branches that travel deep into the soil.

M. marina lives almost exclusively in sand dunes and is completely covered by a dense and long hairy coat. Its presence can help to bind sand dunes to lessen the impact of rising sea levels on coastlines.

While M. arborea is a shrub, growing as high as one metre, M. marina is a low, creeping herb, giving superlative ground cover that enhances and assists the growth of other shrubs in sandy locations.

These shrubs and plants support growth and provide sustainability for a variety of different trees that qualify for sequestration purposes for Greenhouse Friendly™ approval.

Who buys Abatement Units?
Anyone wishing to reduce their carbon emission footprint by purchasing carbon credits to abate their own level of emissions.

The Greening the Desert Program™ is possibly the only program in the world that deals with issues of global warming, drought-stress and salinity simultaneously.

What does a Customer actually buy?
The Customer enters into a contract with PundaZoie to offset greenhouse gas emissions by engaging PundaZoie to establish forestry plantations to sequester Greenhouse Gases (GHG) from the atmosphere and to claim recognition for these Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reductions for the Customer by way of Greenhouse Friendly™ approved Abatement Units.

The obligation imposed on PundaZoie is for the establishment of a forestry plantation to achieve the Target Offsets within 70 years, including the retention of records of the Greenhouse Gas Reductions (GHG) achieved by the forestry plantation.

The Abatement Units created by the plantation on behalf of the Customer are registered in the name of the Customer with the Australian Greenhouse Office ("AGO") and can be transferred by the Customer to any nominee or assignee it chooses, provided the Abatement is counted only once (acquitted) for offset purposes during a Vintage Year.

What are Target Offsets?
Target Offsets are the number of Abatement Units that a particular plantation is calculated to deliver for abatement purposes for an agreed number of years during the life of the plantation (the Vintage Period).

Any particular year during which an Abatement Offsets are acquitted during the Vintage Period is called the Vintage Year which is a calendar year between January and December.

Abatement Units can only be acquitted once.

How are sales conducted?
A Customer's purchase is based on the number of Abatement Units it wishes to obtain for the agreed number of years (the Vintage Period).

For example, a motor vehicle company wishing to offset 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year for 25 years at a fixed cost of (say) $35.00 each will purchase 1,000 Abatement Units a year, every year for 25 years and pay $35,000 a year.

Is the price for Abatement Units fixed for the Vintage Period?
PundaZoie often fixes the price for the duration of the (say) 25 Year Vintage Period (subject maybe to an indexation factor) and, as the plantation matures and develops, Abatement Units are delivered to the Customer at that fixed Abatement Price every year for 25 years as the Abatement occurs.

PundaZoie arranges for the transaction to be registered with the AGO and if it wishes, the Customer can assign Abatement Units to third parties provided the Abatement Unit is acquitted (credited) only once during a Vintage Year which is the calendar in which the Abatement occurs.

How does a Greening the Desert™ transaction proceed?
Greening the Desert™ forestry plantations and colonies take time to plant, grow and mature and the level of sequestration increases as this occurs.

Consequently, PundaZoie contracts to grow and nurture the plantation sufficiently to deliver the Abatement Units as abatement occurs and increases over a period of time.

As the number of occurring Abatement Units increase and become capable of being transferred to the Customer (or its nominee) the Customer pays the price for the Abatement Units ordered for that particular year (the Vintage Year) as they are passed over to the Customer by PundaZoie.

So, the Customer:

1. Enters into a contract for the supply of a set number of Abatement Units for the Vintage Period, and
2. At the commencement of every Vintage Year (during the Vintage Period) the Customer pays for the number of Abatement Units contracted to be delivered to the Customer for that particular Vintage Year.

How Much Do Abatement Units Cost?
The price for an Abatement Unit will vary from time to time according to many factors.

The price is determined by the number of Abatement Units ordered, the Vintage Period for which the Customer wishes to make a commitment and other market forces such as supply and demand.

It is PundaZoie's view that the closer Australia gets towards compulsory trading in 2011, the scarcer Abatement Units will become and the higher their price will be.

Is the Price for an Abatement Unit fixed for the Vintage Period?
Mostly yes. By contracting to accept a fixed number of Abatement Units for an agreed period of time in the future, the contract price can be fixed for the Vintage Period but sometimes the price is indexed for particular Vintage Years during a Vintage Period.

Indexation may be fixed or made subject to increases in the national CPI Index (for example) or may be adjusted upwards by way of some other agreed formula.

The maximum Vintage Period is usually for fifty (50) years.

As Australia draws closer to compulsory trading in 2011, Abatement Units will become scarce and more expensive - thus fixing the price for the purchase of abatement for the future acts as a hedge against future price rises.

When are the Abatement Units paid for?
Abatement Units are usually paid for annually at the commencement of each successive Vintage Year of the Vintage Period.

Payment is made for the number of Abatement Units that are agreed to be delivered by PundaZoie for that Vintage Year and are paid for when they occur and can be acquitted by the Customer at the commencement of each Vintage Year.

Does the price for Abatement Units include GST?
No GST is an additional cost.

What is the smallest number of Abatement Units that can be purchased in one transaction?
Three (3) at a retail level.

What is the largest number of Abatement Units that can be bought in one transaction?
This depends on the size of the Greening the Desert™ plantations and the number of Abatement Units measured and anticipated to be delivered over the Vintage Period or in any given Vintage Year that are available.

These sales are usually at a wholesale rate.

What is the maximum term for a Vintage Period?
PundaZoie does not enter into any contractual arrangements for the ownership, control and or development of plantations for less than 105 years.

The minimum number of Vintage Years required for the purposes of Greenhouse Friendly™ approval is seventy (70) years.

The maximum Vintage Period available for a Customer is fifty (50) years.

Is there a minimum Vintage Period?
No. A Customer may make a one-off purchase of Abatement Units for one (1) year.

What information do Customers receive?
By default, Customers are subscribed to our regular on-line newsletter. However, Customers can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.

Customers also have access progress reports and information confirming details regarding the progress of Greening the Desert™ plantations by video, photographs and progress reports.

Does the Customer hold any interest in the land or in any particular plants, shrubs or trees?
No. The flora always belongs to the landowner - but the Customer will be reducing carbon emissions and be helping the landowner to green his land as well.

There are no specific trees or shrubs identified as "belonging to the Customer" - just a number of plantations in which the Customer has an interest as the beneficial owner of an established number of Abatement Units to be derived from the plantations over a certain period of time.

How does PundaZoie guarantee longevity for 105 years for a plantation grown on land owned by a third party?
The law in the State of Tasmania (which is the jurisdiction for PundaZoie transactions and where initial plantations are being established) regard PundaZoie’s interest in third party farmland as a profit-a-prendre that can be secured and protected by way of a restrictive covenant on the landowners’ title preventing the destruction of that forest within105 years.

Can any number of plantations be "pooled" under the Program?
Yes. Plantations established as forest sinks can be either a single "patch" of planned forest or a forest sink "pooled" as part of many plantations within a range of plantings in any state or territory conforming to Greenhouse Friendly ™ requirements.

The AGO encourages “pooling” as “pooled” plantations are less likely to be damaged or destroyed by fire and/or pestilence.

So there is a risk of forests being damage or destroyed during a Vintage Period?
Absolutely. Greenhouse Friendly™ approval requires adequate risk management and restoration arrangements to ensure permanence. These measures include:

• A commitment to replant;
• The purchase of alternative offsets;
• Insurance against sequestration losses;
• Taking a carbon pool approach, and
• Establishment of buffer zones.

Major concerns are to do with fire, pestilence, drought, flooding disease.

Does PundaZoie™ actively solicit farmers to participate in the Greening the Desert Program?
Not at this stage however, this will change in the future.

How many trees or shrubs are planted in a single plantation?
This varies according to the nature and geography of the soil and landscape and the nature of the particular plantation which is the subject of a formal "Plantation Management Plan" submitted to Greenhouse friendly™ as part of its approval process.

Planting is carefully considered to deliver a balanced outcome for maximum sequestration benefits and maximum crop outcomes.

There are Greenhouse Friendly™ requirements however, with which PundaZoie must comply for its forest to be qualified as Greenhouse Friendly™ carbon sinks.

These include being a forest:

• (a).. Of trees with a potential height of at least two metres high;
• (b)..Planted in patches greater than 0.2 of a hectare in area and planted in rows at least 10 metres apart;
• (c)..Established since January 1, 1990 on land that was clear of forest at December 31, 1989, and
• (d).. Established by direct human induced methods, such as planting, direct seeding or the promotion of natural see sources.

Does the landowner receive carbon credits for forests grown on his land?
No. Abatement Units can only be used (acquitted) once and are applied for the benefit of the Customer, solely for his advantage.