| Location: | Cape York |
| Traditional Owners: | Wuthathi, Guugu Yimidhirr, Yiithuwarra, Kuuku Ya’u, and Wik peoples |
| Regional body: | Cape York NRM |
| Area: | 107,400 (km2) |
| Catchments: | Normanby River, Endeavour River, Jeannie River, Lockhart River, Olive and Pascoe Rivers. 49 Sub-catchments. |
| Population centres: | Cooktown, Lockhart River, Aurukun, Weipa |
| Local government areas: | Pormpuraaw, Cook, Hope Vale, Aurukun, Weipa, Mapoon, Lockhart River, Napranum |
| Dominant land uses: | Conservation (62%), Forested grazing (32%) |
The Cape York Natural Capital Region covers the northern tip of Queensland north of Cooktown. The region is sparsely populated, with Cooktown, Lockhart River, Aurukun and Weipa as the main population centres. The land use in the region is dominated by large areas of forested grazing. The region includes extensive areas of national park and first nations managed land. The region stretches 580km north to south and 400km east to west.
Dissolved inorganic nitrogen generated
tonnes per year
Fine sediment generated
kilotonnes per year
Woody vegetation cover
square kilometres
Riparian and wetland woody vegetation cover
square kilometres
Explore the current condition in the interactive condition report below – Click on a sub-catchment to view a report on the natural capital measures for that sub-catchment in the ‘report’ tab.
Choose the natural capital measures that are important to you – Select the ‘hotspot’ tab and check the indicators that are important to you. Then view measures that are aggregated and range standardised from the highest to the lowest value across the sub-catchments (red for worst and blue for best). By simultaneously considering multiple natural capital measures you can instantly see where the greatest opportunities for natural capital improvement are.
One of the most common uses of Natural Capital Region is to prioritise what to do and where to do it and to forecast the future natural capital condition under alternative nature repair investment programs.
The rapid scenario creation and running allows for the development of co-operative investment strategies that include the priorities of multiple partners (e.g. NRM organisations, federal government, state government and local government).
To facilitate this rapid scenario generation, Natural Capital Region includes region-specific libraries of tens of possible on-ground actions. Each action includes their effectiveness for improving natural capital outcomes, the cost per hectare of the action and the likelihood of adoption of each action.
To demonstrate, a simple investment scenario is embedded below.
| Budget: | $50,000,000 |
| Area: | All sub-catchments |
| Positive Actions: | Terrestrial and riparian revegetation nature repair and conservation actions (protecting remnant vegetation and native revegetation replanting) |
| Negative Actions: | Do not consider the implications of negative actions (e.g. excluding impacts of ongoing clearing or urban expansion) |
| Maximum area per sub-catchment: | Set the maximum area for each action per sub-catchment as 10% of the available area for that action (spread the investment across several actions) |
| Adoption likelihood: | Use likely landholder adoption rates (includes total proportion of landholders and time to achieve adoption) |
| Priorities: | Prioritise based on biodiversity and carbon sequestration outcomes Include economies of scale to favour actions in catchments where there is high availability of land to do the actions |
Explore the scenario results spatially – Click sub-catchments on the map to see the cost breakdown over time and by sub-catchment.
Explore the marginal cost abatement – This shows where the rate of improvement vs cost starts to flatten off. Hover over the chart to see a breakdown of each suggested action by sub-catchment with the associated co-benefits of the action quantified.
Natural Capital Region forecasts a potential future state by considering alternative on-ground actions. A critical step in this process is compiling the data to establish the baseline condition for the region.
Metadata for the indicators (and groupings used in Action set up) included in the Cape York (Queensland) instance of Natural Capital Region have been thoroughly documented.
Subscribe to our mailing list for all the latest news and developments about Natural Capital Suite.
Truii acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
