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Building regional capacity in natural capital investment with Reef Catchments NRM

Summary

Truii is partnering with Reef Catchments to support the Proserpine Integrated Project (PIP). Our team joined staff from Reef Catchments and the University of Queensland to facilitate a workshop to build staff knowledge of natural capital and provide hands-on training with Truii’s Natural Capital Suite of web apps that empower decision-makers to accelerate environmental and social outcomes.

Image courtesy of Reef Catchments

5 min read

Author: David Waters

Supporting smarter investment in natural capital

In early July, our Natural Capital Lead, David Waters, spent two days with the Reef Catchments NRM team and University of Queensland Research Fellow, Joe McMahon, delivering a natural capital workshop. The workshop focused on building knowledge and skills for Reef Catchments staff around improving their understanding of what natural capital is providing hands-on training in the use of Truii’s Natural Capital Region and Natural Capital Project web apps.

The goal was to build knowledge of natural capital and included hands-on training to better quantify environmental, social and economic outcomes of their historical, environmental investment programs. Those insights will then be used to identify and prioritise the best value projects to deliver and communicate future regional nature repair programs.

Images courtesy of Reef Catchments

David pictured with Reef Catchment staff during the workshop.

The challenge: selecting the right nature repair actions

Deciding where to implement nature repair projects—like wetland rehabilitation or revegetation—is a complex task. Reef Catchments were looking to improve and streamline the process of prioritising investments across their catchment areas. Using Truii’s Natural Capital Region they could identify and prioritise the best value projects in a way that considered cost-effectiveness and multiple environmental benefits. Historically, prioritisation of on-ground projects has been a time-consuming exercise. The Truii apps streamline the process in a repeatable manner using a data-driven science-based approach.

Hands-on learning and field insights

The workshop with Reef Catchments included interactive sessions exploring natural capital concepts and how Truii’s Natural Capital Region and Natural Capital Project web apps— can guide decision-making. By working with real project data, participants learned how to quantify and report the outcomes of past and current projects.

David, along with some of the Reef Catchments team, also spent time visiting the “Barra and Beef” wetland rehabilitation site—a restored area that showcases previous nature efforts like tree planting and wetland establishment. These field visits connected the web app training to real-world outcomes, demonstrating the value of natural capital approaches in action and how they could look in future projects.

Image courtesy of Reef Catchments

David and Reef Catchment staff out in the field at the “Barra and Beef” wetland rehabilitation site.

Part of a broader initiative: Proserpine Integrated Project (PIP)

As part of the Proserpine Integrated Project (PIP), Truii has partnered with Reef Catchments to deliver the natural capital component. Truii is building regional capacity by providing data-driven web apps and training. Empowering Reef Catchments to quantify the outcomes of their work and identify and prioritise the best value projects to deliver and communicate their future nature repair programs.

“Our tools give organisations a consistent and transparent way to decide where investments will deliver the highest returns—for water quality, biodiversity, and local communities,” says David.

Learn more about Truii’s involvement with the PIP >>

The Proserpine Integrated Project, delivered by Reef Catchments, is part of the $5.5 million Reef Place-Based Integrated Projects initiative funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program.

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