Natural capital and farm profits can work together

Farm productivity and natural capital do not have to compete, with research showing there is a “sweet spot” where both environmental and economic performance can benefit.

And farmers have a fundamental role in delivering biodiversity offsets - but businesses and governments need to work with agriculture to achieve wins for both.

These were key messages from Sheep Producers Australia Policy Adviser and Green Sheep Project Lead Carolyn Cameron at the National Biodiversity Offsets Conference in Canberra recently.

Speaking to 430 scientists, environmentalists, policy advisers and researchers, Carolyn pointed to Farming for the Future research covering 114 farms and 230,000 hectares.

“Not surprisingly, high-performing livestock businesses benefit from high levels of natural capital,” she said.

But the research showed it was not simply about maximising natural capital at the expense of agricultural production.

“When you get to that zone when you have high natural capital and high economic performance, you're in the sweet spot,” Carolyn said. And this is where public and private benefits are balanced.”

Carolyn said finding that balance was increasingly important as farmers considered a growing number of options for their land - from food and fibre production to renewable energy, carbon sequestration, nature repair and biodiversity offsets.

She also explained how agriculture was concerned about prime agricultural land moving into alternative uses, pointing to the sale of Tasmania’s 20,000ha Rushy Lagoon property to UK-based Gresham House for a carbon project.

At the same time, ABARES research demonstrated Australia would need “land-based solutions” for carbon sequestration to meet global emissions goals.

Carolyn said this made working with farmers a necessity.

“We need to understand farmers' motivations,” she said.

“Who do they trust for advice? What does the conversion of land mean for agriculture and regions?”

The Green Sheep Project is tackling some of these questions by working with Natural Resource Management organisations, producers and trusted advisers to improve understanding, measurement, recording and reporting of natural capital.

This national project is also examining what banks, insurers, processors and others in the supply chain may increasingly require from producers.

Carolyn said reducing complexity and building farmer confidence would be critical to participation in emerging markets.

Challenging the conference to think more broadly about the definition of “net gain” from national biodiversity, Carolyn suggested the effect of biodiversity offsets on farming communities should be considered.

“When we come back to net gain, one of the things that has been researched is perhaps that in addition to applying the mitigation hierarchy to get a net gain for protected matters, we should actually be thinking about no net loss in well-being for the community surrounding a particular offsetting,” she said.

"That includes material things like access to livelihood and housing and the environment, relational things like community networks and empowerment and then there's subjective components that capture individual’s wellbeing t including things like ecosystem services where you have more access to nature and stream flows and things like that."

Carolyn concluded by highlighting opportunities the Green Sheep Project delivers for working together in regions to embed best practice and engaging across the value chain to leave an enduring legacy of knowledgeable, trusted advisers.