Evolving nature-based solutions for Australia’s Indigenous estate in 2024 – opportunities and challenges

Jeremy Russell-Smith; Jarrad Holmes; Ben Lewis; John Brisbin; Kamaljit K. Sangha

doi:10.1071/RJ24019

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Previous Contents Vol 46(4)

Evolving nature-based solutions for Australia’s Indigenous estate in 2024 – opportunities and challenges

Jeremy Russell-Smith ^A , Jarrad Holmes ^B , Ben Lewis ^C , John Brisbin ^D and Kamaljit K. Sangha

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Darwin Centre Bushfire Research, Research Institute for the Environment & Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia.

^B PEC Consultants, Lake Eacham, Qld, Australia.

^C Fire Stick & Associates, Katherine, NT, Australia.

^D Mount Molloy, Qld, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: kamaljit.sangha@cdu.edu.au

The Rangeland Journal 46, RJ24019 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ24019

Submitted: 29 April 2024 Accepted: 11 August 2024 Published: 10 September 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Rangeland Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Globally, there is growing interest and potential for investment in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to protect, manage or restore ecosystems through incentive schemes including Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), Nature Repair, Carbon Markets, Common Asset Trusts. Collectively, these NbS markets establish interchangeable mechanisms to help address biodiversity and climate crises, as well as socio-economic issues concerning many Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). IPLCs manage and/or own almost 32% of the world’s land area through customary and community-based tenure arrangements. Since 2000 several PES schemes have been implemented in Australia. These schemes have been overwhelmingly implemented as public-good expenditure, with governments providing ~90% of total funding. Indigenous people have either the legal right to run or veto a carbon market or nature repair project over 57% of the Australian land mass, increasing to 63% in savanna and 85% in desert regions. Here we critically assess opportunities and challenges for Australia’s Indigenous estate associated with existing and emerging NbS market approaches, especially the Commonwealth’s current Savanna Fire Management (SFM) and Human Induced Regeneration methods, evolving Integrated Farm & Land Management (IFLM) and Blue Carbon methods, and proposed Nature Repair (NR) market. To date, Indigenous NbS interests have focused especially on SFM across northern Australia, with prospective opportunities especially for IFLM and NR markets. Most available schemes focus on remediation of degraded lands and seas, ignoring cost-effective investment opportunities to maintain habitats and ecosystems in less-degraded condition. Government-supported Common Asset Trusts can provide effective models for governance of stewardship schemes relevant to on-going care for relatively intact ecosystems. In Discussion we summarise key methodological, institutional, and policy opportunities and challenges for constructive Indigenous engagement with developing NbS markets. Our purpose is to provide an Indigenous land and sea management context to inform development of rapidly evolving NbS markets in Australia.

Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australia, carbon markets, common asset trusts, Indigenous, nature repair, nature-based solutions, payments for environmental services, stewardship.

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