Project types

Project types define the actions you will implement on your project site. You can select which project type you will undertake in the Project Plan.

Native Revegetation

Native forests are amazing! They store carbon, provide habitat for wildlife, improve biodiversity, reduce erosion, improve water quality and make landscapes more resilient. Revegetation projects can also create local jobs, support regional businesses and provide opportunities for Traditional Owner participation in project design, species selection and long-term stewardship.

Native revegetation creates enduring environmental assets. The trees planted today will continue delivering benefits long after we are gone.

Preservation

The best bang for buck in nature repair is often protecting what already exists. The cost of protection and management is often less than one tenth that of establishing new native vegetation from scratch.

Mature ecosystems are remarkable. They are full of plants and animals that have spent millennia developing their complex interactions. A high-quality ecosystem left unmanaged may decline through weeds, pests, grazing pressure, and fragmentation from clearing. Re-creating mature ecosystems through revegetation is awesome, but preventing decline is even better. Protecting existing natural capital is usually the fastest, lowest-risk and most cost-effective way to achieve lasting environmental outcomes.

Preservation projects protect existing forests, woodlands, wetlands and other high-value habitats from future degradation. Typical maintenance activities include weed control, pest management, stewardship agreements, grazing management and targeted habitat improvement. To report project impact we quantify the difference between a future degraded state (without the project) and a future managed state (with the project).

Other

Not every worthwhile nature project involves planting trees or protecting existing ecosystems.

The ‘Other’ project type covers worthwhile nature-based solutions that don’t fit revegetation or preservation methodologies. Examples include constructed wetlands, blue carbon projects, fish passage restoration, nesting boxes, artificial habitat, urban greening projects, soil carbon initiatives and community-led environmental programs. Because these projects are so diverse, some impact measures must be defined and documented by the project developer.

Summary of differences in methodology between the project types

Where possible we use government-developed and industry-standard methods to predict project impacts. For example, carbon sequestration modelling follows the same approach used for Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) revegetation projects, while biodiversity modelling follows the methodology used in the Nature Repair Market’s replanting native forest and woodland ecosystems method.

All project types report against the same 20+ impact measures, allowing very different projects to be compared within a common natural capital accounting framework.

Impact scoring	Revegetation	Preservation	Other
Environmental
Carbon sequestration	Uses CSIRO Looc-C emulation of FullCAM API service. Soon to be replaced by using FullCAM service directly.	Carbon sequestration not modelled for preservation projects	User defined with documentation
Avoided emissions	Uses CSIRO Looc-C emulation of the Greenhouse Accounting Frameworks (GAF) developed by the University of Melbourne Primary Industries Climate Challenge Centre Soon to be replaced by using the Agriculture Innovation Australia Environmental Accounting Platform service implementation of GAF		User defined with documentation
Biodiversity	Uses Truii's emulation of the CSIRO developed Habitat Condition Assessment System (HCAS) (as implemented in CSIRO Looc-b). Soon to implement the CSIRO developed Ecological Knowledge System (EKS) once spatial coverage is extended to the whole country.	Uses the Habitat Condition Assessment System (similar to the Revegetation method), but with user guidance. The user estimates the proportion of biodiversity decline avoided through management and protection activities.	User defined with documentation
Threatened species	Uses Truii's emulation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Index scaled by the size of the project.	User estimates the proportion of threatened species benefit preserved through management and protection activities using the revegetation method as a reference.	User defined with documentation
Water quality	Uses the Truii's emulation of a Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) approach developed by Truii with specific attention to the consideration of ground cover and canopy cover.	Uses the same RUSLE-based approach as Revegetation, but estimates erosion avoided through preventing vegetation loss and ecosystem decline.	User defined with documentation
Soil health	Uses the Truii's emulation of an approach based on predicted changes in ground cover through stock management.		User defined with documentation
Social
Employment diversity	Compare project team diversity with Australian Bureau of Statistics employment diversity data.
Leadership diversity	Compare project team leadership diversity with Australian Bureau of Statistics leadership diversity data.
Fair pay	Five levels of fair pay from 'unpaid' to 'permanent full-time with paid leave'.
Pay equity	If all project team members get equivalent pay for equivalent roles then the Australian Bureau of Statistics gender pay gap is closed
First Nations Engagement	Five levels of engagement from 'No First Nations participation' to 'Project is led and delivered by First Nations people'
On-country values	Five levels of impact on First Nations on-country values from 'No additional on-country values' to 'Project is primarily focused on delivering on-country values'
Community engagement	Five levels of impact from 'No engagement with the local community' to 'Project is led and delivered by the local community, includes capacity building, training and extension activities'
Community employment	The proportion of project staff living within 125km of the project
Local economy	Five levels of impact from 'No policy on local procurement' to 'All products and services are sourced from local suppliers'
Governance
Accountability	Five levels of impact from 'No oversight' to 'Oversight by independent verifier'
Transparency	Five levels of impact from 'No oversight' to 'Regular public reporting'