title: Biodiverse planting for carbon and biodiversity on indigenous land.
abstract: Carbon offset mechanisms have been established to mitigate climate change through changes in land management. Regulatory frameworks enable landowners and managers to generate saleable carbon credits on domestic and international markets. Identifying and managing the associated co-benefits and dis-benefits involved in the adoption of carbon offset projects is important for the projects to contribute to the broader goal of sustainable development and the provision of benefits to the local communities. So far it has been unclear how Indigenous communities can benefit from such initiatives. We provide a spatial analysis of the carbon and biodiversity potential of one offset method, planting biodiverse native vegetation, on Indigenous land across Australia. We discover significant potential for opportunities for Indigenous communities to achieve carbon sequestration and biodiversity goals through biodiverse plantings, largely in southern and eastern Australia, but the economic feasibility of these projects depend on carbon market assumptions. Our national scale cost-effectiveness analysis is critical to enable Indigenous communities to maximise the benefits available to them through participation in carbon offset schemes.
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Anna R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Renwick
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Ecoscience Precinct, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Ecoscience Precinct, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Tara G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Tracey
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: May
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Crace, Australia Capital Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Phil
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Polglase
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Hugh P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Possingham
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Ecoscience Precinct, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Josie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carwardine
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D001315:Australia; D044822:Biodiversity; D002244:Carbon; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon