1. Introduction
Recognising Australia’s natural resources as assets can help drive investment that sustains the country’s food security and biodiversity.
The widespread adoption of innovative and sustainable land practices relies on measuring and valuing environmental ‘assets’ to encourage the adoption of best practices. ‘Natural capital’ has both financial and non-financial value, it encourages sustainable land practices. There is already an extensive knowledge base and capability amongst farmers and their representatives, government, the research community, and intermediaries including natural resource management (NRM) organisations. But there isn’t currently a comprehensive and consistent set of natural capital measures to support widespread adoption of natural capital measurement across Australia.
What we’re doing
As part of Climateworks’ Land Use Futures initiative, two priorities were identified by stakeholders for enabling widespread measurement of natural capital: creating a comprehensive set of natural capital measures and options for incentivising natural capital measurement at the property level. The Natural Capital Investment Initiative is focused on helping to create the tools and resources to support farmers and land managers across Australia efficiently measure their natural capital.
2. How we'll get there
3. Resources
The briefing room: The twin challenge of tackling climate change while preserving nature
To limit warming to 1.5°C we need global emissions reduction as scale.
Building Australia’s natural capital
Responding to audience questions during our recent Climateworks webinar, the second article in our series outlines the challenges and benefits to measuring our natural assets and the services they provide. Our world’s natural areas are under significant threat as demand for land for agriculture and urban development rises.
Natural capital investment initiative – Phase 1 report
Globally, there is increasing recognition of the importance of protecting and restoring nature in order to mitigate climate change impacts.
Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue
The proof-of-concept Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue (NCMC) outlines a comprehensive set of natural capital, production and financial measures to be measured at the property level.