Natural Capital Accounting Benchmarking Project
The Natural Capital Accounting Benchmarking project (NCA), is a joint project between Accounting for Nature® Ltd and Landcare Farming to provide training in natural capital accounting methods and develop environmental baseline reports for producers.
Natural capital accounting provides standardised, quantifiable assessments of the physical state of environmental assets including agricultural soils, native vegetation and wildlife, rivers and marine ecosystems. These measures of environmental condition can be used to understand whether actions are improving or degrading natural capital, which may then guide investment in sustainable land and sea management through enabling natural resource managers, policy makers, investors and customers to link the condition of environmental assets with economic decision making.
Over two years, the NCA delivered 30 workshops to 320 participants (including farmers, graziers and landholders), training them in practical natural capital accounting methods and developing environmental baseline reports for producers and their properties, by using a common set of information such as the type and condition of native vegetation.
Feedback from workshop participants was overwhelmingly positive, and they reported that the field demonstrations and practical explanations of how to implement natural capital accounting methods gave them the confidence to explore engaging in emerging environmental markets. Building on their success, Landcare Farming and Accounting for Nature subsequently hosted two pilot training days on natural capital accounting with landholders and landcare groups, and based on the learnings and feedback from these training days plan to conduct more training days in future.
To learn more about natural capital accounting methods, visit the Accounting for Nature® Ltd website HERE. For more information on how to get involved and upcoming events email [email protected]
The Landcare Farming Program is a joint partnership between Landcare Australia and the National Landcare Network, funded by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program to strengthen the connection between landcare and Australian agriculture.
