NSW Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders says the statement of intent would “future-proof” the state’s primary industries, and build greater economic and climate resilience in the regions.

The federal government is also making headway in this area, announcing earlier this year that it wanted to create a nature repair market. “I think we need the same sort of recognition for nature that says what we’re doing at the moment is unsustainable,” Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said earlier this month. “We’ve got to halt biodiversity loss and begin to repair nature.”

But some environmentalists have raised concerns about this approach. WWF’s acting head of healthy land and seascapes Tim Cronin says the creation of markets to protect the environment was welcomed, but it needed to be done carefully.

“It is important that this is not seen as a silver bullet,” he says. “We also need strong regulation, and environmental governance reform. It needs to be a holistic approach. [Natural capital] is more a way of internalising the ecological cost and benefit. It’s not just about monetising things and selling them.”

Cronin says, for example, the focus of the forestry industry is on timber and the monetary value that can be made. But the industry fails to recognise the other ecosystem values involved, including waterways, carbon, and flood prevention benefits the trees offer. “If we are to better internalise the economic systems and decision-making, it will completely change the economics of logging,” he said.

Cronin adds Australia has a terrible environmental record, with the highest mammal extinction in the world, and every mechanism is needed to turn that statistic around. Since colonisation, about 100 of Australia’s unique flora and fauna species have been wiped off the planet. The rate of loss has not slowed in the past 200 years.

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Dr James Fitzsimons, the director of conservation and science at The Nature Conservancy, says while people knew about the climate crisis, there was not the same awareness about the biodiversity crisis.

“I don’t think it’s as widely known as the issue of climate change. Big events like bushfires and floods are a very noticeable symptom of climate change and rightly get a lot of coverage,” he said. “But species decline happens slowly over time. There is not adequate monitoring for most species so we might not know what is happening.”

Fitzsimons said the challenge for every industry is how to approach conservation. “It’s about using tried and true methods and scaling those up and thinking about new innovative financing mechanisms,” he said.

For example, Fitzsimons is also a councillor on the new federal Biodiversity Council which was announced this month and aims to foster public, policy and industry recognition of the biodiversity crisis. Conservation must extend beyond the scientific realm and into the economic, he says.

“The challenge, in part, has to do with acknowledging that government funding, which does need to be dramatically increased, is not going to solve all the problems. We have a global biodiversity funding gap of around US$700 billion, so we need to use every tool available in the toolbox, even the ones not invented yet or new things we haven’t thought about. We need new ways of doing things and that also includes new markets.”

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While Miller and many other farmers are already doing their bit, and have done so for years, the financial reward is welcome news. Miller’s efforts to protect his patch of land and reduce his environmental impact are endless. From adding ‘seaweed’ additives into the feed to reduce his cows’ methane outputs, to planting thousands of trees to create new habitats for owls and grey-headed flying-fox.

“It’s a much healthier environment [on the farm now] for me and the children. The air is better and everything is clear. It’s not all economic. We farm but some of the greatest joys come from the small things,” Miller said.

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