Unique collaboration to regenerate Sunshine Coast mangrove wetland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Researchers on Queensland's Sunshine Coast are helping the federal government put a price on nature. They're letting tidal water into disused cane farms to inform a new market based on rebuilding ecosystems.

Transcript

00:00Old cane farms are being returned to nature.

00:05Tidal gates, designed to keep water out, are being removed.

00:08This place was plenty full of food, bush medicine, everything.

00:14And this was a gathering place.

00:17This was always known as the wetland.

00:20Researchers say the native wildlife is coming back

00:23and increased diversity will drive up the land's value.

00:26We're working in with nature.

00:27She knows what she wants to be.

00:29If you have a look up at the drains that we have opened up,

00:31you can already see those mangroves were starting to form.

00:33Early next year, the federal government will launch the nature repair market,

00:37similar to the carbon credit scheme.

00:39Landholders will be able to sell certificates for projects deemed worthy.

00:42This is a market that invests in projects that go from 25 to 100 years.

00:48We know that they are complex projects, they are long-term,

00:53and we want long-term investment.

00:55But there is a major difference between the carbon and nature repair markets.

00:59Where carbon credits can be used as offsets, biodiversity certificates cannot.

01:03And that has some economists worried the market just isn't there.

01:06When you start setting up all this market architecture and all this sort of stuff,

01:09it's just a massive compliance and administrative burden.

01:15The environment minister says it's a protection against greenwashing.

01:18Well, the nature repair market can really give investors the confidence

01:23that when they put money into nature repair, that's what they'll get.

01:28The Blue Heart project is a collaboration led by the local council.

01:31Along with nature repair, the government has invested $2 million tracking carbon

01:35captured by mangroves and salt marsh, known as blue carbon.

01:39And mangroves do a lot of great things.

01:41They're very good at sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and locking it away.

01:47The nature repair market will give blue carbon projects like this

01:51the opportunity to get ACUS, Australian Carbon Credit Units,

01:55and also to trade on the nature repair market.

01:59Time will tell if these markets reverse the damage.

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