Natural Capital Accounting in WA

Farm-scale

Natural Capital Accounting in WA

PHOTO © PERTH NRM f ON farm in Kulin carrying out an ecological assessment, here Brendan and Alison are looking at how tillage radish and clover are establishing.

Perth NRM will work with 30farmers across the state to develop a natural capital accounting framework.

BY ALISON WALSH PROJECT OFFICER, PERTH NRM

Anew project is seeking to put your greatest asset — your land — back on the balance sheet. In line with the United Nations sustainable development goals with Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), NCA has potential applications for attracting future investment and sustainable market opportunities.

In essence, natural capital refers to natural resources such as soil, water and biodiversity. In a farming/ agricultural context, these are the resources that are used (‘drawn down’ on) in order to create the saleable products (food) (see Figure 1). Farm management practices influence the quality of a farm’s natural capital. Without a framework that values and supports natural capital, there is little financial incentive to manage environmental factors. As a result, land can become degraded impacting its productive capacity. The NCA project aims to use a farmers production and environmental data to determine a link between the farms management practices and their production and environmental performance.

What is the Perth NRM Natural Capital Accounting project about?

Perth NRM is working with 30 farmers across the state to develop a framework for Natural Capital Accounting on WA farms. This involves collecting the data

and developing the metrics to build an account of participant’s on-farm natural capital. The project team is undertaking wide-ranging analyses of farm biodiversity, soils, plants and Farm management practices influence the quality of a farm’s naturalcapital. produce, combined with historical production data analysis, to provide insight into the sustainability of current practices, equipping growers with the knowledge to improve farm management for both production and environmental outcomes. The Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) project, managed by Perth NRM, was initiated with seed funding from Dutch investment and social enterprise firm Commonland, before attracting further investment from State NRM.

FREE INPUTS: SUNLIGHT, RAIN, DUST, ETC

PURCHASED INPUTS SHELTER, LITTER

TREES AND SHRUBS

TRAMPLING, EXCREMENT

PRODUCTION HEARD

LITTER, SHELTER, ROOTS

GRASSLAND

DECOMPOSITION

SOIL SURFACE

SOIL AND SOIL BIOLOGY

NUTRIENTS

TRADING: PROGENY, FIBRE

NUTRIENTS

SILAGE, HAY

NUTRIENTS

CROPS

NUTRIENTS

LEACHING, EROSION

FIGURE 1. UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE OF NATURAL CAPITAL ASSETS SUCH AS SOIL AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO A FARM’S PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY, WATER EFFICIENCY AND EMISSIONS INTENSITY, ALLOWS FARMERS TO MAKE INFORMED MANAGEMENT DECISIONS TOWARD THEIR LONG-TERM PRODUCTION GOALS.

The benefits of Natural Capital Accounting

A pumpkin farmer in Gingin has started using cover crops to improve the quality, specifically the microbiology, of their soil. The impacts of this practice change will be captured in the natural capital soil and production assessments, allowing this farmer to assess the effectiveness of these practices.

Over time, natural capital accounts will allow the farmer to understand the impact of these practices on their financial, production and environmental performance.

A citrus grower in Moora has established perennial grasses in their inter-rows, increasing soil carbon, water infiltration rates, the soil nutrients cycle rate, as well as preventing soil erosion. Natural capital accounting assessments will measure these benefits through ongoing soil sampling and production data analysis, including capturing any savings in repairing erosion damage. Overall, the contributions the perennial grasses make to the value of the farm’s natural assets can be captured within the natural capital accounts.

How is measuring natural capital beneficial to your farm?

The Natural Capital Accounting project aims to identify and refine how farmers can measure natural capital. This information can then be used for long-term decision making for the farming enterprise. It also aims to provide robust measurements and a verification framework for determining the change in the condition of natural capital and the economic contribution of these natural assets to farming systems. Through NCA, farmers will attain verifiable information on the value of the natural assets on their farm which will allow for directed investment towards the adoption of farming practices that build natural capital. NCA also provides the information and comparability that is needed to access the ‘ethical consumer’ market, which rewards producers that are improving their ecosystems.

There is increasing consumer awareness and interest in, where their food comes from, how it is produced and how sustainable are the applied farming practices. NCA offers an opportunity to communicate the sustainability of a farm and how the sustainability of a farm changes over time. On a national level, the development of a user-friendly digital platform for generating farm-scale natural capital accounts aims to Identifying and refining how farmers can measure natural capital. assist farm businesses to generate and interpret their own farm-scale accounts which will further facilitate directed investment.

MORE INFORMATION

Interested in participating? Want to sign up? As farmers and key industry stakeholders, we would really appreciate your input into this work. If you are interested in participating in the NCA project or would like more information, please contact Mez Clunies-Ross at email: maryanne@perthnrm.com or mobile: 0413 857 048. This project is supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program, Perth NRM and Commonland.

f FARMERS will attain verifiable information on the value of natural assets on their farm.