Natural Capital
Natural Capital encompasses all environmental assets like grasses, soils, trees, vegetation and water that provide value to farm businesses, communities and nature.
Natural Capital provides us with ecosystem services such as food for stock, shade and shelter, soil fertility, pollination, clean water and fresh air that make landscapes more drought and flood resilient.
It’s important for farm productivity and profitability, community well-being and long-term nature repair and resilience.
What is Natural Capital Accounting?
Natural Capital accounting is the way we measure the health of our natural assets. It helps land managers understand the true condition of their land, and how to improve it.
By using standardised Natural Capital benchmarks and metrics, land managers can make informed choices about how to strengthen their unique environmental assets.
How Can Natural Capital Accounting Help Land Managers?
Natural Capital accounting helps Land Managers reduce their climate risk, improve their drought and flood resilience and enhance their productivity and profitability.
It puts land managers first by giving them more control over their decisions and rewards them for continuing to nurture and improve their environmental assets.
Our Natural Capital Pilots
Land managers love Natural Capital accounting. That’s the feedback we’ve received after piloting our accounting method on numerous properties across Australia. They have enjoyed:
- Learning how we measure Natural Capital
- Understanding how their land is performing
- Aligning the data with their land management strategies
Land managers say Natural Capital accounting helps them tell their land stewardship stories and set higher productivity and profitability goals
Example scorecard
Natural Capital Peformance Scorecard
Here is an example scorecard for a semi-arid grazing property. Performance is matched to benchmarks reflecting local conditions, land use and management goals. Data covers the entire property, tracks changes over time and recognises and rewards existing Natural Capital. Importantly, our accounting aligns with international sustainability frameworks, including;
- The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND)
- The Global Biodiversity Framework of the UN Environment Program
- Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
- Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi)
Improving Productivity and the Environment
Good environmental outcomes and agricultural production go hand in hand. Natural Capital accounting creates opportunities to enhance both.
- Trees provide livestock with shade and shelter.
- Maintaining a balance of trees near pastures enhances the water cycle, improving productivity.
- Transitioning from set stocking to rotational grazing increases pasture diversity and soil health, improving livestock feed quality.
- Where trade-offs exist, Natural Capital data enables land managers to make informed choices to balance agricultural productivity with their environmental goals and long-term resilience.
Why Are Financiers Interested?
Financiers could potentially support farmers who manage and enhance their Natural Capital. Improvements to landscapes reduce farm and finance risks by strengthening drought and flood resilience, livestock health and productivity.
Our Expertise
Climate Friendly has deep experience in delivering quality Natural Capital accounts. Our in-house team combines skills in remote sensing, field botany, production systems, and environmental accounting.
We have partnered with a wide range of stakeholders across Australia, including land managers, insurers, regional organisations, agri-supply chain partners and local governments, and have consistently received positive feedback. Our pilot projects have supported landholders in aligning environmental data with broader business and policy goals, strengthening both resilience and market positioning.
Left to right: Jay Hender (Executive Manager – Business Development), Gillis Horner (Botanist), Dr. Lorraine Gordon (Principal – Natural Capital) & Ben Symons (Natural Capital Senior Advisor)
