From The Conversation (18/11/24)…
As Australia privatises nature repair, the cheapest approach won’t save our threatened species
Australia is a world-leader in species extinction and environmental decline. So great is the problem, the federal government now wants to harness money from the private sectorto pay for nature repair.
Under the government’s new “nature repair market”, those who run projects to restore and protect the environment are rewarded with biodiversity credits. These credits can be sold to private buyers, such as corporations wanting to meet environmental goals.
The nature repair market is similar in many ways to Australia’s existing carbon credit scheme. So, examining the extent to which carbon projects actually protect biodiversity is important as the government sets up the nature repair market. This was the focus of our new research.
Alarmingly, we found Australia’s carbon credit scheme largely fails to protect threatened species, despite assumptions to the contrary. The findings provide cautionary lessons for the nature repair scheme.
