Natural Capital Accounting for Melbourne Foodbowl Eco-Leaders

Supporting farmers achieve environmental sustainability

Natural Capital Accounting is emerging as a way for landholders to collate evidence based data that supports their environmental sustainability. In future, this evidence may open up diversified income streams with access to market based incentives for carbon farming and biodiversity stewardship.

This project seeks to support farmers across Melbourne’s Foodbowl to collate benchmarking data and field assessments against suitable ‘methods’ and increase knowledge and skills in natural capital accounting.

Themes and Local Areas

Primary Theme:Sustainable agriculture
Other Themes:Native Vegetation, Native Animals, Soil Health, Communities, Climate Change
Primary Local Area:All Local Areas
Other Local Areas:
Project location:Farmland in Melbourne’s Foodbowl LGA’s
Scale of the project:Landscape – multiple large farming areas
New or continuing work:Building on previous work

Project partners

Lead organisation:Melbourne Water
Key partners:Landcare Networks and Groups, Local Government Councils
Registered Aboriginal Party/s relevant to the project or its area:Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation

Investment opportunities

Opportunities for investors within this project start from:$$ (Tens of thousands of dollars)
Estimated scale of investment for full project implementation:$$$ (Hundreds of thousands of dollars)
Estimated timeframe for full project implementation:2-10 years

Contribution toward targets

Primary Regional Catchment Strategy target:Sustainable agriculture systems – This region’s farms and agricultural industries are recognised as leaders in agri-ecological sustainability and resilience.
Relevant Biodiversity 2037 goal:Support people take action for nature
Relevant National Landcare Program priority:Agriculture systems – Projects that assist agricultural systems (including marine) to adapt to growing market preferences for products with demonstrable traceability and sustainability

More information

Karen.Thomas@melbournewater.com.au