Or Econd as it is referred to within the Accounting for Nature framework.
As the third and final component of the Farmers for Climate Action scholarship, Rennie farmer and Riverine Plains chair Fiona Marshall, recently completed the Accounting for Nature course in Canberra.
“It’s a way of measuring the condition of environmental assets such as native vegetation, waterways, soils and fauna at a property level,” Ms Marshall said.
According to Ms Marshall, the government should be rolling out extension officers to facilitate a program of measuring and improving natural environments on farms.
“If the government supports farmers to gain a baseline understanding of their natural environment it will lead to an Australia-wide community benefit,” she said.
“It would be invaluable to have this knowledge and to see the improvements over time. Considering our reliance on the export market, this is something we need to be doing.”.
The cohort of scholars from right across Australia met for the first time in person in Canberra.
And while it was a highlight meeting Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt and Shadow Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud, the group was thrilled to thrash out thoughts and ideas among themselves.
“It was extraordinarily exciting to get to know each other. We all shared a lot of common interests and through conversation there were endless ‘aha moments’ around farming and the climate,” Ms Marshall said.
Many participants had varied experiences of the natural capital market, ranging from on-farm renewable energy projects to working out if native title agreements and carbon credits can work together.
“It was a privilege to be talking with farmers who have been the first to put their hand up around climate action in agriculture, they have done the work and they are on the bandwagon. Now others can follow their lead or learn from their mistakes,” she said.
Farmers for Climate Action were able to arrange meetings between the scholars and their local members of parliament.
The plan being that when the politicians have questions around farming and climate change, they can identify who in their community is engaged and informed on the topic.
Ms Marshall encouraged anyone with an interest in cutting emissions and increasing farm productivity to read the recently released Farming Forever report; a national plan for climate change and agriculture.
Fiona Marshall is one of only 20 recipients of a Farmers for Climate Action climate-smart scholarship and Country News has been following her scholarship journey.
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