Making it to market

Nine Queensland beef producers have been working towards unlocking the opportunities offered from environmental markets and incentives for reducing emissions.

Currently, livestock producers can enter environmental markets through various methodologies, each of which involves rigorous data collection and evidence of changes made on-farm.

However, a group of north Queensland producers felt opportunities to be rewarded for their efforts to reduce carbon emissions were limited, rarely meeting the eligibility to enter the market. MLA’s ‘Method to market’ (M2M) project is helping them navigate the challenges.

Finding opportunities

Research lead Steven Bray said when the project began six years ago, environmental markets were relatively new.

“There was a lot of uncertainty around how producers could participate and whether it would be worthwhile for their business,” Steven said.

During the project, the status of all nine properties and businesses were analysed from a productivity and profitability lens, and their carbon emissions estimated. 

“It’s a time-consuming process to collate all of this data, and a really important learning.

“We need to support and encourage landholders to retain appropriate business records. It makes good business sense and is critical for demonstrating environmental changes on a property,” Steven said. 

Once the data was collected, appropriate pathways to improve emissions and biodiversity were identified, as well as the potential impact those options might have on each business.

“After considering the options, most properties within the project have not undertaken a carbon project, because there were no carbon project methods suitable for their business,” Steven said.

Chasing the challenge

Steven said while being a difficult feat in northern Australia, environmental markets are an overall positive. 

“If you can access them, environmental markets can provide a financial incentive to take steps which will improve your productivity and demonstrate improvement in the environment,” he said.

While producers around Australia have had success in the carbon market through implementing appropriate practice changes to their businesses, survey results indicated negative sentiment in northern areas.

This largely stemmed from project design and implementation requiring broad systemic change or significant upfront costs if widespread uptake in grazing systems is to be achieved.

“Given the commitment, one of the challenges for most producers is recognising if this is a good business decision for their situation,” Steven said. 

Within M2M, two participating producers did take up the challenge, undertaking activities that have made them eligible to participate in the environmental markets.

With some Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) methodologies currently under review, that eligibility could increase across the region.

“The insights from this project are contributing to the potential redesign of those methods,” Steven said. 

Key findings from the project for consideration include:

• Current methods don’t have the capacity to neutralise production emissions indefinitely, but only for a short period.
• Often large proportions of vegetated areas are ineligible for carbon projects and ACCU generation, though they represent environmental stewardship by producers.

More from Method to Market

Following the M2M project’s conclusion, a new project is being developed to drive further market access through improving biodiversity assessment and monitoring on-farm. 

“Method to Market assessed the biodiversity value of the different land uses on properties, and examined how conditions could be further improved to enhance biodiversity,” Steven said. 

“The new project will develop a producer-ready tool to map the bio-condition of a property, including where bio-condition is improving, declining or remaining stable. 

“The aim of the project is to use that research to demonstrate improvements in bio-condition for environmental markets or processors, retailers and ultimately consumers.”

The project is expected to operate over the next four to five years.