The challenge
Reversing Australia’s environmental decline
Private sector investment can make a significant contribution to nature repair. Businesses, organisations, governments, and individuals are increasingly looking for ways to demonstrate their environmental credentials and achieve positive outcomes for nature.
In 2025, the Australian Government plans to launch the Nature Repair Market, a world-first legislated, national, voluntary biodiversity market. This market will make it easier for businesses and stakeholders to invest in projects to protect, manage and restore nature.
Collecting, sharing and maintaining reliable and trusted environmental information will be essential for the integrity and success of the market.
Our response
A new information system for the Nature Repair Market
CSIRO in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) has created the Ecological Knowledge System (EKS); a robust and transparent source of information about biodiversity and restoration options for the Nature Repair Market.
The EKS helps market participants to access the ecological information needed to plan nature repair projects that deliver genuine biodiversity benefits.
The main components of the EKS include:
- Ecosystem models: Ecosystem models are used in project planning to identify ecosystem type and condition, and the actions that are required to improve biodiversity by restoring ecosystem structure, function, and composition.
- The national biodiversity assessment system (NBAS): NBAS is a nationally consistent system to forecast the expected biodiversity benefits of a project using ecosystem models, local project data, and national spatial datasets.
- First Nations knowledge, values and data: A process is currently underway to co-design with First Nations people a framework for how First Nations knowledge, values and data could interact with the EKS.
The results
The Ecological Knowledge System
The EKS will help participants in designing projects and assessing potential biodiversity benefits, as well as helping investors compare the benefits of different projects.
The EKS will provide market participants with information about:
- the current biodiversity status of a proposed project area
- the management actions needed to improve biodiversity
- the expected biodiversity benefits from implementing those management actions
- the likelihood of these biodiversity benefits being achieved over time
Information from the EKS will be available for priority ecosystems in regions expected to be eligible under the first Nature Repair Market method. It will be accessible for project planning using the web-based Platform for Land and Nature Repair (PLANR).
Next steps for the EKS
Our team will continue to improve the EKS and work to increase its coverage across Australia. Key improvements being considered include how to better account for the effects of climate change on ecosystem restoration outcomes, how to predict the benefits of nature repair for specific species, and how best to apply the EKS in coastal ecosystems.
Download the factsheet
- An Ecological Knowledge System to support nature repair in Australia PDF (454 KB)
- An Ecological Knowledge System to support nature repair in Australia - accessible text only version TXT (5 KB)