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.
The Nature Repair Market is a voluntary national market. It enables private sector organisations and others to take action to restore and protect the environment. The scheme establishes a marketplace where individuals and organisations can undertake nature repair projects and attract private sector investors.
Collecting, sharing and maintaining reliable and trusted environmental information is 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) to be a robust and transparent source of information about biodiversity and management options for the Nature Repair Market.
The EKS helps market participants access the ecological information needed to plan and assess nature repair projects that deliver genuine biodiversity benefits. This information will also help participants compare the potential biodiversity benefits of different projects using a nationally consistent approach.
The main components of the EKS include:
- Ecosystem models: State and transition models synthesise knowledge from a diverse range of sources, including regional experts, on the dynamics, management and restoration of ecosystems.
- The National Biodiversity Assessment System (NBAS): NBAS provides a nationally consistent approach to assessing biodiversity and forecasting the biodiversity benefits of projects. The NBAS works by using information from the ecosystem models combined with on-ground project data and national datasets.
- First Nations knowledge, values and data: CSIRO and DCCEEW are working together with First Nations representatives on the co-design of a framework to inform and guide how Indigenous knowledge, values and data could appropriately interact with the EKS.
The results
The Ecological Knowledge System
The EKS helps market participants design projects and assess potential biodiversity benefits. It can help investors compare the benefits of different projects.
The EKS provides market participants with information about:
- the current biodiversity status of a proposed project area
- the management actions needed to maintain and improve biodiversity
- the biodiversity benefits that may be achieved by implementing management actions.
The EKS can be accessed using the web-based Platform for Land and Nature Repair (PLANR).
Next steps for the EKS
Our team in partnership with the DCCEEW, intend to continue to improve the EKS in response to feedback and to increase its coverage across Australia. Work is planned to consider how to incorporate information about likely futures under climate change and how the approaches used in the EKS could be adapted and applied in coastal and marine systems.
Download the factsheet
- An Ecological Knowledge System to support nature repair in Australia PDF (473 KB)
- An Ecological Knowledge System to support nature repair in Australia TXT (6 KB) - accessible text only version