– CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY –

Panel speech by GreenCollar Chief Strategy Officer, Pierre Josset, at the 2024 Climate Investor Forum, MCG Melbourne

Good morning and welcome. I’d also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are gathered today and their elders, past and present.

You may have not heard of GreenCollar.

GreenCollar is a profit for purpose company, formed in 2011 by our CEO James Schultz, and the late Lewis Tyndall, primarily to develop and drive private sector funding for conservation solutions in Australia, and to reward and incentivise farmers, graziers, traditional owners and other rural landholders for taking action that helps deliver positive impacts for both our environment and our climate. We achieve these outcomes through carefully devised scientifically-based land management projects that produce measurable and verifiable outcomes. 

So, with this in mind, let’s start by talking about deforestation. Because, when it comes to conservation and climate, deforestation caused by land clearing is one of the greatest threats to Australia’s diverse species and their habitats. In essence, the results and ongoing impacts of deforestation are one of the core issues each and every one of our projects is trying to address.

WWF has reported that forest destruction is a threat to more than 700 species of Australian animals.

Australia has lost over 50 percent of its forests since European settlement. In fact, New South Wales has just 36 per cent of its original forests left. 

This is important, and critical to appreciate, because Australia is the only OECD nation to sit among the 24 identified global deforestation hotspots. 

So keeping our trees in the ground and encouraging regrowth of native vegetation and forests has become an absolute priority. Aside from contributing to the extinction crisis, bulldozing our forests releases approximately 24 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere each year. 

And I haven’t even begun to provide statistics on erosion, and the amount of sediment and pollutants that run into our waterways and surrounding oceans and seas, including our iconic Great Barrier Reef.

So what does GreenCollar actually do? Well, we partner with landholders – small and large farming operations – to run projects that improve land management practices so these properties can run their farming operations in such a way that the vegetation we have been talking about is preserved, maintained and regenerated. 

Put simply, in the case of climate, trees that are not bulldozed, and native vegetation that is regenerated, act to – one) – prevent carbon emissions from happening by preventing the carbon stored in those trees from being released – and two) – remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in growing vegetation. 

These amounts of carbon are measurable. So GreenCollar spends significant resources to ensure we are at the absolute forefront of methodologies and technologies that deliver these outcomes and measure them as well. 

Evidence is crucial to achieving and demonstrating the integrity of the results. For, if we aren’t doing what we set out to do, there isn’t actually any climate or conservation gain. To this end, GreenCollar’s staff are accomplished, including a Chief Scientist, Head of Science, other scientific experts and dedicated technical teams.

We also work with esteemed scientists, engineers and other experts to develop methodologies and measurement processes. 

Independent third party verification of the measured outcomes is also absolutely crucial in this integrity scenario – because the highest levels of integrity possible are the hallmarks of the work that GreenCollar sets out to do.

This is where the reward-incentive aspect of these projects come into play for landholders and where we start to see the evolution of private investment in the environment. 

I have told you all of this because it is the model for a number of environmental markets in which GreenCollar operates. One tonne of carbon that is removed from the atmosphere, or prevented from being released into the atmosphere is the basis of one carbon credit.  One tonne of plastic collected and prevented from entering the environment equates to one plastic credit. 

A GreenCollar NaturePlus biodiversity credit represents a 1% improvement in one hectare of measured active restoration or conservation of habitat or species. These biodiversity outcomes are verified and certified by Accounting for Nature.

A similar measurement and verification approach is applied to Reef Credits which I am going to explain shortly.  

When these credits are sold on the relevant environmental markets, they provide direct income to the landholders that is not dependent on their usual agricultural cycles and pressures. They also act as an incentive to invest in further projects, producing more credits, a more dynamic and growing market, and – as these markets scale – growing and wider private investment in conservation outcomes.

This is extremely important because governments and landholders simply do not have the financial resources to spend on conservation at the scale required. Just under 10% of our country is made up of public protected area.  

GreenCollar works with the stewards of private land, farmers, graziers and traditional owners. So we know that by working directly with landholders – not through legislation, we have the best opportunity to make a difference to climate, biodiversity and the planet.

Australia has legislated to control land-clearing and conserve our species for well over a hundred years. It hasn’t worked. As I said at the beginning, our deforestation level is the worst it has ever been and among the worst in the world. The 700 animal species and multitude of plant species that are now endangered in this country do not live solely in national parks. 

Private land and private investment is therefore crucial if we are to have a chance at turning our joint extinction and climate crises around.

Which brings me to our World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. It is the largest reef ecosystem on the planet, consisting of 25,000 differently sized individual reefs, 900 islands, spanning over 340 thousand square kilometres. It contains extensive cross-shelf diversity, stretching from the low water mark to 250 kms offshore.

Coral reefs are critical for the survival of life on earth, including us. 25 percent of marine life across 1 million species live on them. One billion people depend on coral reefs for their food and livelihoods. Reefs generate $36 billion in global tourism revenue, supporting millions of jobs in restaurants, hotels, tour operations, transportation and so on. Additionally, 200 million people rely on coral reefs to safeguard the coast from storms – if they vanish, sea wall replacements would cost trillions.

Yet our reefs are in grave danger. And our Great Barrier Reef is no different. Poor water quality flowing from rivers to the reef is considered the second most serious threat to its health after global warming. 

Agriculture is the largest industry, by land area, in the Great Barrier Reef catchment. It highlights the important role this industry plays, as land stewards, in reducing water pollution flowing to the Reef. Because, when it comes to the long-term survival of the Reef, reducing this pollutant source is the most manageable approach.  

This is achieved by improving land management practices to reduce the amount of fine sediment and nitrogen that run into the waters of the reef, threatening the myriad of life that exists in this gigantic ecosystem. Poor water quality directly impacts reef health  and also reduces its capacity to cope with and adapt to climate change impacts. 

In an effort to turn this picture around, the Australian and Queensland governments have jointly committed to the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan which sets targets designed to improve the quality of the water flowing from the coastal catchment areas into the Reef. 

There are a number of approaches to achieving these goals. But improving land management practices in these catchments can make an enormous difference to the amount of sediment and nitrogen that washes into the reef. 

So GreenCollar develops projects that are specifically designed to achieve this. The result is Reef Credits, the mechanism by which a clean water market has been established for the reef. It’s a world first. 

One Reef Credit represents one kilogram of dissolved inorganic nitrogen or 538 kilograms of fine sediment that has been prevented from entering the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. These outcomes are independently third-party-verified by Eco-Markets Australia. 

And just as with other nature-based projects, like carbon, these credits can be purchased to make up for operational reductions a business has been unable to prevent or for ESG purposes. And with the advent of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures, Reef Credits, a nature market, becomes particularly relevant.

So how do we achieve real impact? To date, GreenCollar has worked with farmers to generate approximately 45,000 Reef Credits – which is 45 tonnes of nitrogen that has not entered the Reef. The most recent significant purchase  – a $10 million commitment – was made by the Queensland Government at the end of last year. 

Confidence in this new market is increasing. We must scale up to industrial levels if we are to reach the internationally recognised water quality targets. This will require an investment of at least $2 billion.

Being able to measure real outcomes that – at scale – start to deliver real solutions to environmental problems is what GreenCollar was conceived to deliver. When you are dealing with nature, which is increasingly struggling to combat large scale threats – like deforestation, pollution and human induced climate change – our solutions need to also take place on a large scale. 

Government protections and regulations are only one part of the response humanity must take. They have been shown to not be enough. The other part must come from the private sector. 

We understand that businesses are experiencing increasing pressure from a host of very influential stakeholders to demonstrate the ways in which you are minimising impacts and, indeed contributing to improvements, for nature. 

GreenCollar is a specialist in this area. Reef Credits is one approach that will deliver real, evidenced, verified improvements for one of the world’s most famous and loved wild places – one that is under immense threat. 

So, if you are looking to build an investment that will significantly contribute to a positive future for this internationally iconic ecosystem, we would be very pleased to partner with you. Please reach out. I’d love to discuss it with you.

Statistics 

• Name: Mike Rosser
• Location: Wanaaring, New South Wales
• Farming enterprise: Cattle
• Landholder Size: 70,000Ha
• NaturePlus™ Project Area: 5,364Ha.
• NaturePlus™ Project ID: 1: Argyle NaturePlus™ Native  Vegetation Restoration Project.

1. What are the strategies the NaturePlus™ Project was trying to achieve? 

There are four strategies the project was focusing on, including:

• Best practice rotational grazing to improve recruitment and ongoing gains in tree and shrub richness.
• Establishing and maintaining fencing and water infrastructure to improve recruitment and ongoing gains in tree and shrub richness.
• Minimising negative impacts of feral animals including goats, horses, pigs, foxes and cats.
• Prevention of introduction and spread of exotic grasses and other serious weeds.

 

2. What is the history of the holdings

In 2004 we purchased Argyle Station at Wanaaring, New South Wales in the middle of the millennium drought. We thought it would rain and we would be ok, but it took another five years before the rain came. In 2010/11 we experienced La Nina events, and we saw grass which we’d never had before, and we got really protective of it. That’s why we first considered rotational grazing.

At that time, we looked at the land and said ‘we have come from a dust bowl, now let’s take a snapshot of this ground cover, keep it like this, and try to continue to have this going forward’. It was then we really started looking at ways to keep that grass, and GreenCollar came along with a solution in carbon farming.

 

3. What changes did you make for your carbon projects? 

We originally farmed Dorper’s and goats, but after another drought in 2017-2019 we decided to de-stock and move into cattle, which have less impact on the environment. We’ve done a lot of programs over the years, with ground cover restoration projects and grazing management projects. Even in 2019, we were still living on grass that had regenerated back in 2010/11. It had been grazed and rested, grazed and rested. We managed it well.

The grasses we have are semi-arid perennial summer grasses and they are really hardy. If you don’t over-graze them and leave enough behind to make the land ‘rain-ready’, you will get forever out of them.

The size of our holdings means that developing fencing and water infrastructure is extremely expensive. Partnering with GreenCollar initially for carbon projects and now for NaturePlus™ has facilitated the injection of off farm funds that has allowed us to revolutionize our grazing management. This has boosted our ability to mitigate the grazing effects on regenerating native forest.

 

4. What is your involvement in the NaturePlus™ Scheme?

For us, NaturePlus and focusing on biodiversity and Biodiversity Credits wouldn’t have been possible without our involvement and the foundation of our existing carbon projects. NaturePlus™ was officially launched in November 2022, but we started our NaturePlus™ project about 18 months ago and generated the first Credits earlier this year.

As we have been involved in several GreenCollar projects, the team has collected additional data over the years for the future development of biodiversity projects with us, including for this project that has generated these first Credits.

It is extraordinary to think that on a global scale, we have been the first to generate these Credits – just from the changes we’ve made on the land. It’s of global significance, which comes back down to a square meter of dirt at Wanaaring, and that is not business as usual – that’s extraordinary!

We are hoping to develop a total of three NaturePlus™ Projects over the 70,000 hectares we manage, and I am excited to see the data that comes back with every monitoring period so I can make more tactical grazing decisions on where we are not performing and do something about it.

 

5. How does the NaturePlus™ Scheme work? 

NaturePlus™ Projects must meet a minimum level of condition to be eligible and demonstrate progressive measured restoration to be awarded NaturePlus™ Credits. Once conditions have reached a sustainable level, projects switch to conservation and must remain above that level to continue Crediting.

As a result, NaturePlus™ delivers restoration of degraded ecosystems and species populations, as well as protection of high value environmental assets once a nature positive impact has been achieved. Each NaturePlus™ Credit represents one hectare of habitat or species restoration or conservation and can be sold to voluntary investors including corporates, governments and philanthropists.

 

6. What attracted you to NaturePlus™? 

The benefit of NaturePlus™ and biodiversity Credits is that it is genuinely passionate people coming together who are chasing better environmental outcomes and environmental sustainability of their farms. It’s people doing the best they can. The people who are in this are people who care and that’s the beauty of it.

I am a passionate farmer, and I am passionate about the agricultural sector as well as environmental sustainability. It’s the farmers who have stepped up and are making a difference to achieve Australia’s commitment to achieve Net Zero.

 

7. Would you recommend working with GreenCollar on a NaturePlus™ Project? 

We are looking 20 to 40 years down the track, and partnering with GreenCollar is the best choice for us, where we can keep improving our place and keep loving our land and animals. They are always there helping us along the way.

For those interested in getting involved, I’d say the first thing you need to do is get a calculator out and work out how many dollars per hectare you are earning out of that paddock now. Then chat to GreenCollar and see what projects you are eligible for and compare the potential income you could generate. Then work out what you need to do to facilitate that project, because it’s not about doing the same practices, you will have to invest and manage your grazing differently.

 

8. What are the changes you have implemented? 

We understood that we had to make some changes and invest in our infrastructure upgrades to achieve the best results.

Some of those changes include:

• 200km of new fencing
• 80km of poly piping for water points
• 40 new water points and trapping yards to trap the goats.

We knew we had to manage the goats and livestock more efficiently. We’ve always run the goats to catch them, and now we manage them more effectively, so they have less impact on the regenerative forest and vegetation.

The biggest issue we had was goats eating the regenerated forest. Yes, we always mustered and trapped the goats, but now we really manage them to get rid of them, and that’s the biggest difference. We are really cleaning the place up, getting rid of the goats and letting the land regenerate.

To the outsider, yes, we are doing the same activities, but we are doing it differently, so the outcome is a huge change. The country itself has become a lot more manageable, because of the infrastructure, which was facilitated by being in partnership with GreenCollar and getting additional off farm income for Carbon Credits.

 

9. What are the benefits of the NaturePlus™ Project to your agricultural business? 

In my mind, the NaturePlus™ project not only contributes to addressing the biodiversity crisis, but also provides critical economic benefits. Along with our carbon projects it has allowed us to employ six full-time staff. For us, our model is about being ‘environmentally sustainable and economically viable’ and that is what this project and partnering with GreenCollar is all about. Our projects are helping us to make better management decisions, when it comes to grazing calendars, destocking decisions, and provides us an off-farm income to take out the financial pressures of farming. That off-farm income has put us 15 years ahead of where we would have been.

Yes, we are determined and use best current practice in all our grazing management activities, but it helped get us there a lot quicker.

 

10. What are the other benefits of NaturePlus™ and partnering with GreenCollar? 

The pivoting direction for us by partnering with GreenCollar is our focus is not only on better grazing management practices, but also on the difference we are making to the groundcover and improving our knowledge. We have moved from traditional graziers and changed our management to facilitate native forest regrowth on our farms through massive infrastructure investments, in both water and fencing. Now it has been so successful that GreenCollar are asking us, what more can we do? How can we make this even better?

GreenCollar developed the methodology that the NaturePlus™ Project runs under, and we review the biodiversity results and collaborate with GreenCollar to implement the changes needed to continue to improve. As we have done several other projects with them, we are now at the point where we train our workers to monitor and manage for better grazing management and that has a flow on effects.  We train them on how to feed budget, how to identify species, how to work out how many days per hectare we can run an animal in so it won’t affect the country, and also how much biomass to leave behind. This education is creating a paradigm shift on how we look at the country, and biodiversity – and that has to be a good thing, for everyone.

 

11. How many Credits were generated during Period 1 of the project? 

The total number of NaturePlus™ Credits generated by the project in monitoring period 1 was 8,557.

 

12. What’s next? 

We are continually working on being ‘rain ready’. If we continue using best current practice grazing management, marrying our stocking rate to our carrying capacity and destocking early, because we can (because we have off-farm income), our paddocks are  ‘rain ready’, meaning when we get rain – we get a response and that’s what we need to  happen.

Continuing this and participating in more biodiversity projects is the next step for us. We already have more biodiversity projects in the pipeline, because they are linked to our existing carbon projects through monitoring sites, and GreenCollar has been taking additional data over the years to plan future biodiversity projects with us.

As a landholder I am excited to continue seeing the data, and work collaboratively to see how our management can make an impact on biodiversity – that is what I want to see, I want to see where we are making a difference for the future.

Tell us a little about you, your property, and your enterprise?

We (Cameron & Michelle) took over the lease at Merluna Station in 2004 along with our three Children Sammy-Jo, Holly & Clay.

We run two businesses at the station – we raise beef cattle, and also run accommodation and camping facilities for tourists seeking an authentic Cape York experience. We take real pride in our traditional station cooking and extend warm country hospitality to all our visitors. You can find more information about our offerings on our website – www.merlunastation.com.au.

Much of the land, like many parts of Cape York Peninsula, remains undeveloped. Around the homestead, we’ve erected fences and manage a herd of about 500 ‘paddock’ cattle with more roaming freely across the property – as is common in Cape York.

We are particularly passionate about the ‘Grazing Naturally’ philosophy and over the past five years have made significant strides in adopting this approach. We’ve eliminated the use of chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, and drenches on both our pastures and animals. Instead, we’ve shifted towards an organic operation that emphasises maintaining the land’s delicate balance.

Why did you decide to run a carbon project?

The landscape of Cape York is very susceptible to late dry season wildfires. Unfortunately, we’ve also experienced the impact of arson in our area, which resulted in extreme wildfires in the dry season.

Hot wildfires are a big problem because they jump roads and creeks and are impossible to control or put out. They can be dangerous, and continuous hot fires can have a devastating effect on the country & wildlife, which was the case before the savannah burning carbon project.

Our carbon project works to prevent late dry season wildfires by carrying out preventative cool burns in the early dry season. This which reduces the chance for late season wildfires and reduces the carbon emissions produced by hot wildfires.

_{Image source: Merluna Station}

What are three benefits you are looking forward to from running a carbon project on your property?

Firstly, it has allowed us to reinvest and make a change in our business. The greatest benefit of the carbon project has been the extra income, which has allowed us to have financial security while transitioning to the grazing naturally approach.

While transitioning to grazing naturally we experienced periods of lower productivity, where our calving rates were down, and our cattle condition changed as we moved away from chemicals and followed a more natural and organic approach. It has taken us about five years for our productivity to reach levels similar to what we had before the change. Having the security of carbon income allowed us to ride through this period without too much worry.

We can see the good natural balance the carbon project creates, as the cool burning is less damaging on land than hot fires. Nowadays we’re seeing better pastures with some areas opening up and growing more grass since the carbon project began.

The carbon income has also given our family financial stability. We’ve been able to breathe a little easier, with the confidence that money is coming in, and this is a big relief after 30 something years on the land.

_{Image source: Merluna Station}

What are you looking forward to in the future?

I am looking forward to seeing what the next generation achieves here at the station. All three of our children and their families are still on the land and in the cattle industry.

One of our families’ goals is to make our operation carbon neutral, and one of the benefits of cool burning is that it’s helping us reduce emissions. Being involved in this project allows us to make changes, to transition, and over a period of time we will eventually create an operation that has no emissions.

Most of all, our carbon income gives us hope and security for our family’s future. It shows our children that it’s not too hard to make a life out here, and that they can pursue a career and lifestyle in agriculture and really make something of it.

_{Image source: Merluna Station}