Cassowary Credits Enters Beta Phase

On-ground projects have begun in the Daintree and Innisfail as the launch of a biodiversity credit scheme, based in the Wet Tropics region, draws closer.

Terrain NRM is working with Rainforest Rescue and Cassowary Coast Regional Council on ‘beta phase’ revegetation projects for Cassowary Credits, one of the world’s first high-integrity biodiversity credit schemes.

For the past five years, Terrain NRM has been working with private industry, government, scientists, indigenous groups, community organisations and Eco-Markets Australia on the development of this conservation finance scheme to attract more investment into rainforest restoration and protection.

Through Cassowary Credits, land managers can generate quantified units of habitat restoration, known as ‘credits’, to be sold on environmental markets worldwide.

Partnering with Rainforest Rescue and Cassowary Coast Regional Council 

Terrain NRM’s Bronwyn Robertson says partnering with Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Rainforest Rescue is hugely satisfying following the design and product development years.

“We are working closely with our first participants to select sites, survey the habitat for baseline condition assessments, plan the projects to get the best biodiversity and community outcomes, and start the planting and monitoring,’’ she says.

“Habitat condition will be measured over time. Improvements generate Cassowary Credits. This beta phase is our final testing phase, to guide future projects.”

Ideal location for a biodiversity credit scheme

She says the Wet Tropics is the ideal location for a biodiversity credit scheme.

“We live in one of the most biologically diverse bioregions in the world, and the only place with two interconnected world heritage areas – our Wet Tropics forests and the Great Barrier Reef.

“But our habitat faces an increasing number of threats – from invasive species to climate change. And restoration work is under-funded.

“For a long time, local community organisations, Traditional Owner groups and landholders have been calling for larger-scale and longer-term funding for restoration and conservation.

“While biodiversity credit markets are in their infancy, their role in mobilising increased funding for biodiversity has been recognised in the United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework. Cassowary Credits places the Wet Tropics region in a good position to take advantage of early developments in the emerging biodiversity credit market.”

Rainforest Rescue’s CEO Branden Barber sees Cassowary Credits as an essential mechanism for regional restoration of rare and threatened species.

His organisation is in the planning and feasibility stages for restoring 30 hectares of low-lying land across the road from an ox-bow wetland that connects with the Daintree River as well as Crocodile Creek and adjacent mangroves at the mouth of the Daintree River.

“There are two different ecotones and, if restored, the area would support a range of threatened and iconic species,’’ he says. “It’s also an important spot for migratory species.