Valuing natural assets on farms

North West Local Land Services is working with farmers to build awareness and understanding of natural assets and the benefits of associated ecosystem services.

The Valuing Natural Assets on Farms project focuses on managing:

• remnant and planted vegetation
• perennial pastures
• farm dams
• riparian areas for productivity and biodiversity.

Local Land Services has worked with Australian National University on site selection for monitoring and monitoring protocols.

So far the project has: 

• prioritised 11 sites for monitoring natural assets on farms and initial revegetation work is now being monitored annually until 2028
• completed baseline flora assessment, bird monitoring and soil classification
• completed baseline surveys for natural assets and 10 financial benchmarking baseline surveys with participating landholders
• delivered training, in partnership with the Sustainable Farm Initiative, for participating landholders
• provided webinars for the broader farming community on topics such as an international perspective on carbon farming, biodiversity credit and opportunities for participation in the biodiversity market, farm productivity and natural capital profiles, and farm emission accounting and building farm/enterprise emission profiles.

Participating landholders are receiving coaching, guidance, resources and ongoing support until December 2027.