NESP MaC Project 3.20– A National Approach to Indigenous Engagement in Australia’s Blue Carbon and Environmental Markets, 2023-2025. (CDU, ICIN, NAILSMA)

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Project 3.20– A National Approach to Indigenous Engagement in Australia’s Blue Carbon and Environmental Markets. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Blue Carbon and Environmental markets, and their related environmental policy are rapidly evolving to meet National carbon reduction targets. In Australia, they’re emerging markets with great potential to improve carbon sequestration and restore biodiversity and cultural values. However, swift market growth infers the potential for perverse outcomes without proper regulation and processes implemented alongside. Corresponding regulation and processes are not yet in place to ensure Indigenous engagement is conducted in a legitimate, respectful, and empowering manner. The project proposes to coordinate a national Indigenous engagement approach for Blue Carbon and where appropriate include discussions on other Environmental market projects. This process will capture the wide-ranging rights and interests of Indigenous peoples and communities across jurisdictions and ensure empowerment in the Blue Carbon market. A key output from this research will be a document that outlines leading practice Indigenous engagement principles learned through a process of consultation with key Indigenous groups across Australia. It will be submitted to the Commonwealth government alongside proposed new Blue Carbon methods to enable efficient implementation that is ethical and in accord with leading practice principles of Indigenous engagement. The Blue Carbon market provides an opportunity for Indigenous community economic gain amidst complex legislation, tenure, resource ownership and co-benefits that haven’t been investigated in detail. Projects for the proposed Ungulate Method (Project 3.8) will occur on Aboriginal-owned land and mixed tenure where Indigenous people hold significant values and interests. Ensuring, Indigenous peoples rights, equity, and that principles of free, prior, and informed consent, are at the fore front of projects, leading practice Indigenous engagement is essential. The project notes that the legislative framework for the Blue Carbon market and how it relates to Indigenous peoples is different to other emerging environmental markets and it is likely to inherently limit the outcomes of this project. Planned Outputs • Mapping tenure of Blue Carbon resources [spatial dataset] • Final technical report with analysed data and recommendations for policy makers of key findings [written]