In brief
Australia has launched a second method for its national Nature Repair Market that allows landholders to register projects aimed at improving and maintaining native vegetation. The new approach adds to the existing replanting method, which has already protected 2,656 hectares of land. The expansion is intended to broaden eligibility and support environmental offsets.
On Friday in Canberra, Australian authorities launched a second method under the national Nature Repair Market that would let landholders register projects to improve native vegetation and restore areas cleared of native plants.
Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt announced that the new "enhancing native vegetation" method would allow projects to enhance existing native vegetation or restore vegetation in cleared areas, and could also improve habitats for threatened species and control invasive plants and animals.
The market was originally created to motivate landholders, farmers, Indigenous groups and conservation organisations to invest in biodiversity restoration. Under the first method, which focuses on replanting native forest and woodland ecosystems, four projects are already registered and cover a total of 2,656 hectares of land.
The expansion is expected to broaden eligibility, enable the use of certain projects as environmental offsets, and stimulate demand for biodiversity restoration activities on private land.
Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt said:
The Nature Repair Market is still in its early stages, but by introducing more methods for use, we're incentivizing and rewarding landholders for protecting and restoring biodiversity on their land, including by controlling invasive species,
He added that protecting habitats on private land was essential to improving conservation outcomes for Australia’s threatened native species.
