PARTICIPATE IN THE CASSOWARY CORRIDOR CREDIT SCHEME
The Cassowary Credit Scheme is a market-based mechanism aimed to attract greater investment into rainforest restoration in the Wet Tropics.
What is the Cassowary Credit Scheme?
Terrain Natural Resource Management (Terrain NRM) are engaged in designing a market-based mechanism aimed to attract greater investment into rainforest restoration in the Wet Tropics.
Landholders will obtain a realistic financial return to conduct biodiverse restoration activities.
The eligibility criteria outlines how projects within the scheme must generate benefits for Indigenous people and local communities.
What are Cassowary Credits?
Cassowary Credits are a biodiversity credit mechanism to restore rainforest on cleared land in the Wet Tropics.
Its development has been extremely collaborative, with the identification and development of the scheme involving a huge number of partners, many based in the region, and most have provided significant in kind support.
Who is Funding The Scheme?
Funding to undertake the development work has come from the Queensland Government and WWF.
The scheme is almost market-ready, but implementation will also need these strong partnerships to continue: For training, skills development, business development, nurseries, tree planters, monitoring, and more.
Why Do We Need A Cassowary Credit Scheme?
The Queensland Government’s Land Restoration Fund has supported the development of this concept, which was undertaken because the scale of restoration required to save Wet Tropics forests is significant.
Existing funding models are too small scale and inconsistent to deliver the landscape scale restoration required to build resilience.
Terrain NRM have identified 50,000 hectares of land in the region that is unsuitable for agriculture that could be restored. Areas of climate refugia and high biodiversity values need to be made resilient, such as by expanding areas of habitat and establishing new connectivity corridors throughout thousands of hectares of land across different tenures.
Existing markets, like carbon, have had limited uptake in the Wet Tropics. With growing momentum in nature-positive market initiatives that consider restoration of nature and provide benefits beyond carbon, there is potential to improve project feasibility and deliver stronger outcomes for the region’s communities and ecosystems.
What Other Impacts Will The Scheme Have?
It was also important to incorporate regional aspirations to support regional communities and economic development through job creation and building capacity, within Traditional Owner communities, who managed the landscapes for tens of thousands of years and hold significant traditional ecological knowledge.
The investment which it is hoped the scheme will attract will provide multiple outcomes for the whole region - social, economic, cultural and environmental, and benefits to many stakeholders, including Rainforest Aboriginal People and local communities – showcasing a regional approach to biodiversity markets.
To find out more about the launch of this valuable biodiversity nature credit scheme and how you can partner with Rainforest Conservation Foundation, contact us today.