Climate Connections: Farmers eye carbon credits as a way of regenerating revenue and nature

Nature is our life support system, but right now, it’s in trouble. WWF’s latest Living Planet Report reveals that the average size of wildlife populations have declined by a staggering 73% since 1970, providing a stark warning “that the world is fast approaching dangerous tipping points”. 

Habitat loss and degradation, driven primarily by our food system is the most reported threat to wildlife populations, followed by overexploitation, invasive species and disease. 

With Australia’s role as a regional food supplier growing in importance as global food demand surges, an Australian farmer-owned mutual - Regen Farmers Mutual - is working hard at giving landowners greater access to the growing environmental goods and services markets as the world transitions to net zero.

More than 80 farmers, conservationists and landcarers behind Regen Farmers Mutual have designed a new brokerage model to reduce transaction costs and enable farmers to aggregate their market power to sell environmental services. They are raising $51 million from mining and energy players to fund a series of regenerative farming projects. The mutual has agreed to $100 per unit for the first 1,000 of 18,500 available carbon credits across 750 hectares of land.

On this episode of Climate Connections, Rohan Clarke, Co-director, Regen Farmers Mutual shares how they’re tapping on carbon markets and regenerative farming to preserve their lands.

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting ([e-mail])
Voiced by: Emaad Akhtar
Photo credits: Regen Farmers Mutual
Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors

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