The Project

Title: Natural Capital
Duration: 2025 – 2027
Funding: This project, delivered by Reef Catchments and supported by Truii, is part of the $5.5 million Reef Place-Based Integrated Projects initiative funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program. This project is part of the Proserpine Integrated Project.

Summary:

Reef Catchments’ work with Truii focuses on building the capacity to quantify and value natural capital outcomes from water quality improvement projects. The Natural Capital Suite of integrated web apps, developed by Truii, aligns environmental, social, cultural, and economic indicators international reporting standards. 

This suite of tools supports large-scale environmental investment, farm-scale project planning, and alternate markets for nature repair funding. It helps landholders and project developers design, implement, and report on activities that deliver real environmental and social outcomes. 

Imagine natural capital as a shared community asset, like roads or hospitals. When we invest in it, everyone benefits – from farmers who get healthier soils, to fishers who see stronger catches, to stronger tourism, to families enjoying cleaner water and a Reef that thrives for generations. It’s an investment in nature that pays back for everyone.  

Strategy:

As part of the Proserpine Integrated Project (PIP), Reef Catchments, is working together with Truii and using their Natural Capital Suite of integrated web apps to accelerate environmental and social outcomes. In a regional community like Proserpine with the Great Barrier Reef at its footstep a project to improve natural capital might look like:  

• Supporting farmers to improve soil health so less sediment runs into creeks and the Reef. 

• Restoring wetlands that act as “natural filters” for water quality. 

• Planting vegetation along waterways that both stabilises banks and boosts biodiversity. 

• Restoration areas on farm to diversify income by creating areas that support popular farm stays for travellers.  

 A landholder might initially experience the loss of income when converting productive land into a wetland, however through the natural capital lens realises the value of it in multiple ways, such as water treatment, habitat, or stormwater retention. And if the artificial wetland was designed specifically as a dual-purpose system, serving as a treatment system and irrigation storage then it may be possible to irrigate from it, while also to be enjoyed as a fishing hole for the grandkids.  

By measuring and valuing these benefits, natural capital accounting gives communities and industries a clearer picture of the return on investment from looking after the environment – not just in ecological terms, but in economic and social terms too.  

Achieving water quality outcomes together with economic and social outcomes is the overarching aim of Reef Catchments placed-based and innovative Proserpine Integrated Project (PIP), and it’s seven sub projects. This project will help us to: 

• See what nature provides: Clean air, water, healthy soil, and flood protection. 

• Track changes over time: Understand whether the environment is improving or being damaged. 

• Make smarter decisions: Reveal the true value of nature and the cost of losing it. 

• Include nature in planning: Help governments, businesses, and communities consider the environment alongside economic costs and profits. 

Objectives and Outcomes:

This project focuses on three key activities: 

• Assessing past projects: Quantify the natural capital outcomes of historic initiatives. 
• Assessing current projects: Measure the natural capital benefits of ongoing programs. 
• Reef Credit development: Provide support for developing Reef Credit methods. 

Truii Partnership to strategically prioritise and quantify nature repair projects 

Truii’s Natural Capital Suite of integrated web apps are designed to reduce transaction cost and increase confidence in natural capital investment. They are applied in this project to build Reef Catchment’s capacity to quantify and value natural capital outcomes from water quality improvement projects. By integrating environmental, social, cultural, and economic indicators that align with international reporting standards, the Natural Capital Suite empowers decision-makers to accelerate outcomes with scalable, science-backed, web-based solutions.  

Natural Capital Region is being applied initially to support Reef Catchments to quantify the outcomes of large-scale, historical, environmental investment programs. Following, Natural Capital Region will be used to identify and prioritise the best value projects to deliver and communicate future regional nature repair programs. 

Truii’s Natural Capital Project web app will also be applied to demonstrate how landholders and project-brokers can quantify the environmental and social impacts of their nature repair projects at local and global scales.