Can the NWT sell the rest of the world credits for conservation?

Representatives of an Australian climate change advisory firm hope to help develop a program of nature stewardship credits in the Northwest Territories.

The idea of nature stewardship credits is to provide some financial reward to communities and peoples that conserve and restore the land.

The territory is one of four places globally where the not-for-profit Pollination Foundation is working to introduce the program.

This project is a collaboration with First 30×30 Canada, an initiative designed to support Indigenous-led conservation efforts that includes non-profits like Nature for Justice.

On Friday, the Pollination Foundation held a workshop in Yellowknife with Nature for Justice.

Nature For Justice Canada managing director Steven Nitah said the goal is creating “a space where global corporates and markets can support” the local responsibility in the North of managing the land.

He gives the example of one hectare of land in which biodiversity is managed, the work is governed carefully, and it results in a positive impact on nearby communities. That work on one hectare would equal one nature stewardship credit.

Under such a program, a protected area like Thaidene Nëné – which is 2.6 million hectares in size – could generate revenue for communities while ensuring appropriate management.

“In creating these projects, we work it so that the markets – whether it’s carbon or nature stewardship – are there to support what’s been going on on the land already, instead of conforming the community to fit the market,” said Nitah, a former MLA and chief who has since worked on various negotiations related to land and conservation.

“It’s important for the continuation of the effective conservation and stewardship of land by Indigenous peoples that the market recognizes that success.”

Nature stewardship credits are not yet common systems in most countries.

Pollination Foundation’s Jane Hutchinson said they are emerging as a way to finance work people do to look after nature, and Australia has begun to use credits to fund Indigenous protected and conserved areas.

For example, an Australian program named Wilderlands allows people and businesses to buy credits that support a range of biodiversity programs. Another program, NaturePlus, hands out credits based on “measured, verified conservation outcomes” for areas like koala habitat.

In the NWT, Hutchinson said the focus is on long-term care for the land and sea through the likes of fire management, conservation of animals and plants, and revegetation, alongside “social and other aspects that run alongside those projects.”

“It’s the difference between what would have happened without that intervention – so a baseline – and then the improvement that comes with looking after those landscapes,” she said.

“That’s what the credits are generated by.”

‘Confident to invest in nature’

Last year, more than 20 Indigenous groups in the NWT signed a funding agreement worth up to $375 million in combined government and private cash for conservation work.

While that agreement did not rely on any system of credits, it showed that some private-sector appetite to pay for northern conservation work exists.

Australia established a Nature Repair Act that came into effect in 2023. The “nature repair market” created by that act is due to open this year, which is considered a big test of how attractive nature stewardship credits are to companies.

Views vary about how quickly the new Australian market will succeed in generating interest – and cash.

Hutchinson said credits can be funded by governments but are also designed to bring in new money from sources that haven’t yet invested in nature and carbon.

As an example, Hutchinson said in a previous role she began a carbon project covering 11,000 hectares of land in Tasmania that now generates roughly $500,000 a year for the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.

“We originally were skeptical about whether that carbon project would work, and so we budgeted $0 return in the first two years. Then after that, it was this almost windfall for the organization, because it now sustains the entire conservation program of the organization,” she said.

Hutchinson believes the NWT government could try to create conditions like Australia’s Nature Repair Act for businesses to “feel confident to invest in nature beyond carbon.”

Pollination Foundation’s Ariadne Gorring said the group is hoping to help the GNWT think about “a scheme that’s fit for purpose for this region, and what types of policies and laws would need to be created to make that work.”

Gorring said finding ways to fund Indigenous people to be able to continue stewardship will be critical in meeting global climate goals. The credits system would be one way of doing so.

“Some of that may be through government revenue, some might be through sale of carbon credits, some might be through other tourism or recreational-type activities,” she said.

“But having that diversified model for long-term, sustaining stewardship of these really important areas is the goal that we all need to get to globally.”

Correction: February 13, 2025 – 1:33 MT. This article initially stated that Pollination Foundation began a carbon project in Tasmania. In fact, Jane Hutchinson led the project in her former role as CEO of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.