Community perceptions of carbon farming: A case study of the semi-arid Mulga Lands in Queensland, Australia

International efforts to combat climate change are reflected in diverse national and subnational policies, the effects of which can stimulate fundamental changes in land use at the regional scale. Since 2012, the Australian Government has provided incentives for landholders to implement “carbon farming” through methods that either sequester or avoid the release of carbon emissions in vegetation and soils. While the factors leading to individual landholder adoption of carbon farming is widely researched, there is comparatively limited analysis of broader community perceptions and potential impacts of its resulting changes in land use and management. This research uses semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis to explore community perceptions of carbon farming in the vast and remote Mulga Lands of Queensland, Australia, a region that supports nearly 200 carbon projects across 7 million hectares. We found that individual landholders were motivated to adopt carbon farming primarily for the economic benefits, despite sharing concerns with the broader community over potential environmental and social impacts. Long-standing local attitudes, values and beliefs around perceived desirable natural landscapes, and their role in maintaining agricultural production, underpin a view that non-active land management and absentee land ownership – considered by some in the community to be a consequence of carbon farming – would contribute to ongoing rural decline. Our findings show that the scale and pace of land use changes facilitated by carbon farming have led to a community impact in the Mulga Lands. Such impacts must be explicitly considered in future research, policy and planning to ensure land use transitions stimulated by carbon farming policy are effectively and fairly managed. •Carbon farming can provide economic benefits to rural landholders.•Economic incentives motivated adoption in the Mulga lands, despite community concerns.•A mismatch in normative expectations and carbon farming has led to negative community impacts.•There is mistrust and uncertainty around carbon farming in the Mulga Lands.•Policy and planning should seek to manage carbon farming land use transitions.