Reef Credits

Eco-Markets Australia is a non-profit organization administering crediting schemes that compensate farmers, land managers, and graziers for their contributions to environmental outcomes.

Its first environmental market is the Reef Credit Scheme, a novel, market-based solution for improving the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef. The scheme allows landowners to implement initiatives that enhance water quality through adjustments to land use, producing a tradeable pollution reduction unit known as a Reef Credit. Each Reef Credit represents a quantifiable volume of sediment, pesticide, or nutrient that was prevented from entering the Great Barrier Reef catchment.

Using the reef-wide pollution reduction targets outlined in the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan (2018), the relative value of pollutant reduction from nutrients, sediment, or pesticides is calculated. The Reef Credit Secretariat regularly updates these values to reflect changes in pollution reduction goals. Governments, businesses, and philanthropists can purchase Reef Credits to invest in enhancing water quality.

Benefits of the Reef Credit Scheme:

• Verified outcomes – Investors purchase verified water quality outcomes that are audited and delivered.
• Consistent monitoring – Provides tools for measuring and monitoring progress toward water quality goals across the Reef.
• Independent governance – A single platform for administration with independent, open, and responsible governance.
• Complements key services – Supports other ecosystem services, agribusiness, extension, and catchment management.
• The organization’s Credit Registry tracks ownership and transactions involving environmental credits, including their creation, acquisition, and retirement.

The first Reef Credits have been granted to a project in the Tully River Catchment, developed by GreenCollar in collaboration with a local cane farmer.