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

1

Develop measures

Create a proof-of-concept Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue that outlines a comprehensive set of natural capital measures

2

Test the measures

Engage external stakeholders to test, validate and refine the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue

3

Explore incentives

Pilot incentive programs for supporting natural capital measurement at the property level

4

Scale up

Through targeted events, communications and reports highlighting progress, including our first major milestones: hosting the Natural Capital Summit and publishing the Natural Capital Roadmap report