9Project area and eligible land

9  Project area and eligible land

 (1) The project area must include land (eligible land) meeting the following requirements:

 (a) during the whole of the baseline period the land was used for one or more of the following agricultural uses:

 (i) pasture;

 (ii) cropping;

 (iii) bare fallow;

 (b)  there are no dwellings or other structures on the land;

 (c) as at the end of the baseline period, it was reasonable to expect that carrying out the eligible management activities proposed by the relevant land management strategies will increase the carbon sequestered in the land;

 (d) it is possible to sample the soil on the land consistently with the requirements of this determination.

 (2) Land is not eligible land if:

 (a) the land:

 (i) is or becomes a project area or part of a project area of another eligible offsets project that is a sequestration offsets project; and

 (ii) is land with forest cover or land with forest potential; or

Note:  Land with forest cover or land with forest potential may be eligible land provided it meets the requirements in subsection (1) and is not excluded by subsection (2).

 (b) the land has been subject to:

 (i) illegal clearing of a native forest, or illegal draining of a wetland; or

 (ii) clearing of a native forest, or draining of a wetland (that was not an illegal clearing or draining), within:

 (A) 7 years of the lodgement of the section 22 application for the project or the section 29 application for the land; or

 (B) if there is a change in ownership of the land, after the clearing or the draining—5 years of the lodgement of the section 22 application for the project or the section 29 application for the land; or

 (c) the land contains organosol.

 (3) The project area may include land which is not eligible land only if that land will not be part of a CEA for the project or is to remain part of a CEA in accordance with subsection 5(8) of Schedule 1 or, as applicable pursuant to section 15, subsection 6(8) of Schedule 2.

 (4) A project area may be varied under the legislative rules only if one or more of the following apply:

 (a) the first offsets report for the project under subsection 76(1) of the Act has not been submitted;

 (b) the variation removes only areas that are exclusion areas or emissions accounting areas from the project area;

 (c)  the whole of the project area is removed from the project;

 (d) one or more whole CEAs are removed in circumstances where: