Getting GANE's Message to Where It Matters

When Growing Australia’s Nature Economy (GANE) launched in early 2026, it did so with a clear mission: to defend Australia’s carbon and nature markets from misinformation and poor policy design, and to help scale them so they deliver real, measurable outcomes for nature, landholders and the nation.

Emerald House was engaged to build a communications strategy capable of cutting through a noisy and often hostile media environment — one in which well-funded opposition voices were drowning out the farmers, conservationists and Traditional Owners doing the actual work on the ground.

Taking the Story National

Critical to effective storytelling around carbon and nature markets is stepping away from the jargon, turning down the heat of the debate and clearly illustrating the real impact they are having on our environment and regional communities. Emerald House worked with A Current Affair to bring some of those stories to a national prime-time audience. The report, “Unconventional plan to help save our endangered species,” focused on three threatened Australian species — the Northern Quoll, the Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby and the Gouldian Finch — whose recoveries are being funded in part by these markets. It is the kind of story that gets lost when public debate is dominated by ideology rather than evidence.

The A Current Affair segment reached millions of Australians who might not have ever read a carbon credit methodology or policy paper. That is the point.

Speaking to the Farming Community

Emerald House has also been focused on reaching the audiences whose support matters most for GANE’s long-term credibility: farmers, graziers and regional communities.

GANE’s launch event at Rose Isle Station near Louth on the Darling River — attended by around 100 farmers, policymakers, First Nations land managers, scientists and investors — generated strong coverage in The Western Herald and on Outback Radio 2WEB. GANE Convenor Brendan Foran joined 2WEB’s Outback Mornings programme, explaining how carbon and nature markets are already delivering for rural communities.

The Western Herald coverage captured what the event was designed to show: that these markets are not abstract financial instruments dreamt up in city offices, but practical tools already keeping family businesses viable across regional Australia. As Brendan Foran put it, waiting for a perfect system “won’t fix the Murray Darling, won’t fund ranger jobs and won’t keep farms going through drought.”

The Land followed with a feature story on Western Division grazier Mike Rosser, who runs sheep on 71,000 hectares near Wanaaring. His experience rebutted one of the most persistent claims against carbon farming — that it costs regional jobs. In fact, Rosser’s carbon income has allowed him to employ two additional families and invest in the infrastructure his property needed. “It’s ridiculous to say that carbon projects in this division are driving people off the land,” he told The Land.

These are the stories that matter in the political fight over environmental markets, and they are stories that only get told when a communications strategy prioritises authentic landholder voices over lobbying talking points.

The work is ongoing. GANE’s message — that environmental markets are already delivering for nature, for landholders and for regional Australia — deserves to be heard above the noise. Emerald House is making sure that it is.

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Watch the A Current Affair story: Unconventional plan to help save our endangered species

Read The Land’s feature: Jobs, not just trees: the carbon farming story politicians are not telling you

Listen to Brendan Foran on 2WEB: Outback Mornings