Nature Credits Pilot

The Trust is investigating options to repurpose project land and pilot the creation of a nature credit that can support restoration and maintenance activities and can be scaled up to the wider catchment in the future. This builds on previous studies that looked to identify viable opportunities and impact investment options in support of nature-based solutions at landscape level.

The ability to generate revenue through nature (carbon and biodiversity) markets is a critical step towards incentivising landowners and facilitating investment for restoration / conservation.

Key objectives for this project include:

• Trialing a nature credit verification mechanism to attract investment / earn revenue from restoration activities
• Trialing planting approaches that reduce the overall cost of planting and maintenance. The current costs for standard restoration planting approaches are unaffordable to afforest larger areas. To achieve biodiversity gains at scale, more cost-effective methods need to be identified
• Scale approach within the Waituna catchment to restore larger areas and attract revenue via nature credits
• Document and share lessons.

Phases of this project include:

• Assessing the market and technical feasibility for a nature-based credit / payment mechanism to access sustainable finance for re-purposing of project land as a nature asset (completed April 2025). The Trust is now assessing the activities needed to finalise the project design so it can be registered with a credit standards agency,
• Identifying suitable land areas for the trial based on the requirements of the credit standard and other criteria
• Developing a phased restoration plan and approach, linked to the requirements of the identified/preferred nature credit standard
• Implementing first phase planting
• Monitoring and planning for future phases.