Up to $7.4 million in funding has been offered to 53 projects in the second round of the Australian Government's Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot program.
Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud said the pilot was supporting new income for farmers who improve biodiversity on their land.
"This pilot has shown that we can reward farmers for the stewardship of their land, by combining biodiversity outcomes with carbon projects," Minister Littleproud said.
"It is about delivering biodiversity outcomes, showing the market how farmers can get rewarded for that and providing an opportunity for corporates to participate.
"That's win-win for farmers and the environment and opens the door for corporates to invest in Australian agriculture."
Minister Littleproud said the current pilot was testing protocols for market mechanisms to buy and sell biodiversity services, part of a broader plan to set up a voluntary biodiversity stewardship market underpinned by legislation.
"We ran this second round of the C+B Pilot, in six new Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions across Australia," Minister Littleproud said.
"It builds on over $4 million offered to 65 projects in round one.
"We are learning from the pilot and have invested $27.3 million through the 2022 Budget to help build a voluntary biodiversity market, by expanding the Trading Platform to have an automated system for trading by the private sector and farmers, and more support from natural resource management groups.
Successful projects in round two were drawn from the following NRM regions: Goulburn Broken (Victoria), Northern and Yorke (South Australia), NRM South (Tasmania), Riverina (New South Wales), South Coast (Western Australia), Fitzroy Basin (Queensland).
Fast facts
- The Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot is part of the $91.6 million Agriculture Stewardship Package which is trialling approaches to provide additional income streams to farmers by developing private markets for on-farm biodiversity.
- 2022 Budget measures:
- Improved tax treatment of farmers' income from carbon and biodiversity markets, which is expected to reduce taxes paid by farmers by $100 million over the forward estimates
- Additional $27.3 million to expand the Trading Platform to have an automated system for trading by the private sector and farmers and more support by natural resource management organisations to assist farmers to apply and register their projects.
- With the two rounds there have been offers made to 118 farmers worth $11.6 million.
