New Advocacy Group Launches to Defend Australia's Environmental Markets

Australia is currently sitting on one of the biggest opportunities for regional economic growth and nature repair in its history. To ensure that farmers and Traditional Owners are equipped to take full advantage of these opportunities, a new national advocacy group, Growing Australia’s Nature Economy (GANE), has officially launched.

GANE was established to: strengthen public confidence in Australia’s carbon and biodiversity markets; support participating landholders; and ensure these systems deliver measurable results across regional Australia.

Australia’s land, water and wildlife are under unprecedented strain. Australia has lost more mammal species than any other country, with at least 39 species extinct and more than 1,900 now threatened. Around 70 per cent of the continent is arid or semi-arid, soils are degrading, and land clearing rates remain among the highest in the developed world. Farmers and regional communities are bearing the brunt through worsening droughts, floods and rising costs.

Repairing nature at national scale will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and governments cannot carry that burden alone. Australia’s environmental markets are already funding nature repair at scale, with more than 160 million Australian Carbon Credit Units issued and billions of dollars flowing from major emitters into land restoration, Indigenous land management and biodiversity recovery. These markets are overseen by the Clean Energy Regulator, independently audited, and delivering measurable results now.

However, these markets frequently face ideological opposition. Amidst ongoing debates, GANE stands as a staunch defender of these vital economic tools. You can read more about GANE’s critical role defending carbon markets in this recent article in The Australian: Curbs sought on carbon credit schemes to protect farms, food security.

GANE Convener Brendan Foran highlights the fundamental fairness of these markets, which work in tandem with genuine emissions reduction initiatives: “Big industry pays. Landholders and Traditional Owners deliver. Nature benefits”. Foran argues that blocking these practical solutions while waiting for a perfect system is not leadership, but “abdication”.

This reality is echoed on the ground by landholders. Bourke farmer Mike Rosser notes that carbon income was about business survival, allowing his family to invest in water and fencing while keeping people employed through tough droughts. “The idea that this is anti farming is nonsense,” Rosser says.

Ultimately, GANE is calling on governments, industry, and the media to stop treating environmental markets as a culture war. By lifting landholder voices and correcting misinformation, GANE is pushing for a national conversation grounded in evidence and lived experience.