Mount Lofty

• Climate change and biodiversity loss are arguably the greatest environmental challenges the world faces.
• The way we use land is crucial in finding solutions to these problems.
• Sometimes when taking these actions, however, carbon storage is prioritised at the expense of biodiversity.

Carbon markets don’t always help nature

• Carbon markets encourage farmers and other land managers to help mitigate climate change, through activities such as planting trees or avoiding land clearing.
• These activities are rewarded with “credits” which can then be sold to buyers wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, such as a polluting company.
• For example, a particular tree species planted to store carbon may not be useful to animals in the area.
• We wanted to know if carbon markets could pay for such work.

What we found

• The scheme, which began in 2006, invited private landholders to tender for ten-year contracts to undertake certain restoration activities.
• Monitoring showed the activities restored some components of the woodland systems – most notably the diversity of native plant species.
• We found the additional carbon stored in the woodlands could pay all, or a substantial proportion, of the price of restoring degraded native vegetation.
• Read more:
  Carbon markets could protect nature and the planet, but only if the rights of those who live there are recognized too

Implications for Australia

• This could be achieved either with separate markets, or markets that include both biodiversity and carbon.
• But using markets for both nature repair and carbon storage will only work if the markets are designed well.
• Read more:
  'Untenable': even companies profiting from Australia's carbon market say the system must change

• Patrick O'Connor has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the South Australian, Victorian, New South Wales and Australian governments including the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust.
• She is a board director of the Nature Conservation Society of SA, and a member of the Ecological Society of Australia, Modern Money Lab and Scientist Rebellion.