Wedgetail

Nature’s ecosystems are the foundation of life, yet modern economics treats them as an afterthought. This market failure arises, in part, because when nature is assigned a financial value, it’s often considered in fragments, rather than as a whole. Timber has a market price, for example. So does coal, wheat, cattle and copper. Beavers once had a market value so high they were hunted to near-extinction. What typically lacks a market value, however, is protecting a forest to reduce the risk of floods in downstream towns, or to filter drinking water for a city, or to stabilise local weather patterns in an agricultural hub. These benefits are considered intangible and, therefore, rarely factor into economic decision-making. As a result, when governments and businesses base decisions solely on costs and profits, ecosystems are depleted and destroyed. Forests are logged, rivers are rerouted, air is polluted and soil is eroded — not because they lack value, but because their value isn’t reflected in financial systems. Keep reading: https://buff.ly/KdwIOIz #naturepositive

Last week Louise Arkles (The Ian Potter Foundation) and I had the privilege of joining Australian Land Conservation Alliance for a tour of The Quoin with Wedgetail’s Lisa Kate Miller (Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network (AEGN) member). This remarkable 5,000-hectare property in the Tasmanian Midlands (with another 2,000 hectares recently added) provides great landscape connectivity across grassy woodlands, open valleys, sandstone features and dramatic dolerite escarpments (including The Quoin’s namesake). Areas previously used for grazing and cropping are now undergoing thoughtful restoration with rigorous ecological monitoring. It’s a test site for viable business models in nature repair on private land. Like the property itself, the conservation methods used are expansive including collaborative research with universities and early-career scientists, cutting-edge technology, and a range of techniques to address complex restoration challenges. Experimentation and tech innovation is bold at The Quoin but there’s also a patience and humility in restoring nature: - things will take time - not everything will go as planned - observation underpins learning Thank you Lisa for your amazing leadership and inspiring vision for private land conservation in Australia. Thanks also Karina West, and Jody Gunn for the invitation to join the field trip.

What does 'putting a price on nature' actually mean, though? In Wedgetail's latest newsletter, we share four practical examples from around the world. From Belize and Colombia to Costa Rica and New York, these case studies hint at the transformative potential of financing environmental stewardship. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gY6hS-mP

We just hit send on our latest newsletter! Read it here: https://lnkd.in/euZZurdF

It was incredibly special to join the Australian Land Conservation Alliance as a new member of their team this week, on their strategy and team building retreat in Tassie. We had a chance to see inspiring action in the field, think creatively about the role of the org and its members in addressing the biodiversity crisis, and have an excellent dose of belly laughs. Some highlights included: 🔥 Being welcomed onto Country by Uncle Hank of the Kooparoona Niara 'spirit mountain' clan, and learning more about the unique challenges in land management and conservation for the Tasmanian Aboriginal People, the Palawa 🌿 Meeting Bob Brown at Oura Oura, and grounding our week in the origin story of Bush Heritage Australia and modern private land conservation. Bob's irrepressible energy and optimism were buoying - "Don't get depressed, get active" 🌈 Working on ALCA's org strategy with James Hattam, outgoing CEO of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, who helped us tap into our 'beginner's mind', to think creatively about our work, and find new ways of telling stories 🐑 Getting in to the field to learn more about native grasslands conservation in the Tassie Midlands, where some of the last patches of these incredibly important, threatened ecosystems are still holding on. We learned about the Midlands Conservation Project, which pays farmers not to convert or overgraze their land via mid term stewardship agreements. Thank you to Matt Appleby for your deep commitment to this work over more than 20 years, and Julian Von Bibra for your hard work, hospitality and frankness around some very challenging issues 💸 Unpacking some of the unique aspects of philanthropic giving in the nature sector with Louise Arkles and Margie Jenkin: including the challenges of monetising nature, depoliticizing nature giving, and achieving systems change 🪶 And last but certainly not least - spending a day with Lisa Kate Miller and her amazing team at The Quoin, a 5000ha conservation property dedicated to reimagining regeneration. Founded in 2021 and financed by Wedgetail, this land, once grazed and cropped, is the petri-dish for both time-tested and brand new, creative approaches to de-risking business models that support the viability and profitability of private conservation work. Thank you so much Jody Gunn and the team at ALCA for an extraordinary and enriching week. Look forward to converting our learnings into meaningful action in 2025 🙏🌿✨ #privatelacovertervation #strategicplanning #teambuilding #tasmania #biodiversitysolutions #bobbrown #researchanddevelopment #naturecrisis #midlandsconservationfund Victoria Marles AM Michael Cornish Monica Haynes Phoebe Pace Marnie Lassen Salman Sarwar PhD Karina West

Last month, The Quoin's eastern quoll population got a boost! This translocation is part of a multi-year project, championed by: ⭐︎ Tasmanian Land Conservancy ⭐︎ WWF-Australia ⭐︎ University of Tasmania ⭐︎ Tasmanian Quoll Conservation Program ⭐︎ East Coast Natureworld World ⭐︎ Devils at Cradle ⭐︎ Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary ⭐︎ Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary And others! You can read about the project via the ABC: https://buff.ly/bFwYfiJ

We're so proud to be part of this project! Last month, two dozen captive-bred eastern quolls were released at The Quoin, and according to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy's Dr David Hamilton, "most of them haven't moved particularly far ... they're happy in the area that they've been put in ... which is fantastic". Read more here: https://lnkd.in/epDGUDHu

Are you an impact-focused leader seeking inspiration and tool-kits for success? 💡🛠️ Theoretically I’m a recovering journo, but muscles need flexing, so – starting next week – I’ll be writing about leaders having a positive impact on the planet at impactable.news. 🗞️ I’m starting close to home, interviewing my mate Grant Gilmour, co-founder and director at Beanstalk AgTech. 🌾 Each week, impactable.news will unpack and celebrate the power of storytelling, explaining how clarity helps impact-focused visions soar. On my wish list for March? → Roxane Bandini-Maeder, co-founder and CEO of Geoneon → Charlotte Connell, Greenhouse Climate Tech Ambassador → Jo Kelly, founder and CEO of Australian Seaweed Institute → Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Climate Council → Lisa Kate Miller, founder and CEO of Wedgetail → Rocky de Nys, Chief Scientific Officer, Sea Forest If you’re a leader at an impact or sustainability-focused startup impactable.news provides valuable, unique content. If you work for – or with – such businesses, or are simply interested in this space, you should enjoy the newsletter too. Subscribe here, thanks! 📧 >>> https://lnkd.in/gGHr3dHf #impact #sustainability #entrepreneurs #founders

Last night was the saddest ever 😭 Cristina Amador López and I ate the last bit of the incredible chocolate that my friends at Wedgetail sent me last January! We had been rationing it as much as possible: A little square of each in the evening while watching LOTR under the blankets, with the snow falling outside, was our daily luxury. And finally, almost to the day we finished the extended versions of the movies, we ate the last piece. So sad! These were the amazing chocolates: 🌱 Dandelion – Dominican Republic 70%: (Cris's favourite) Made with beans from Zorzal, a Wedgetail portfolio company. The cacao is grown in and near forests in the Dominican Republic, visited by the Bicknell's Thrush. Zorzal is the world's first Bird Friendly Certified cacao farm, certified by The Smithsonian! 🌱 Standout – Lachua Guatemala 70%: Fruity and astringent. Very tropical! Wedgetail's partner, Central Cacao, is based in this same region of Guatemala. Can't wait to taste that one too! 🌱 Zotter Ecuador 60%: The sweetest of the four (and with the cutest team photo in the package). Wedgetail's partner To'ak (makers of the world's most expensive chocolate!) is also based in Ecuador, so that's next on the wishlist. 🌱Original Beans Arhuaco Businchari 82%: (my own favourite) Made with cacao from Wedgetail's portfolio company, Cacao Hunters, who work with AsoArhuaco, a local Indigenous community. This 2,000-year-old cacao variety is the star of many award-winning chocolates. To be honest, our ranking of these four kept changing throughout our chocolate-tasting, Frodo-cheering journey. The important bit is that the cacao of these bars is grown organically in or near tropical rainforests, proving that business models can work in harmony with nature and taste pretty darn good too. Thank you, Bronte McHenry 🦅🌱and the Wedgetail team, for the experience! We were already sort of coffee snobs; now thanks to you, normal chocolate feels meh... 😅 And if anyone reading would like to try, reach out to Paul and Emma at Chocoladeverkopers.nl.

Eight reasons we build leaky weirs at The Quoin 1. To slow the flow of water so it can spread across the landscape and sink into the soil 2. To filter manure, enabling it to float to the ‘high tide’ mark, where it breaks down and provides fertility in those locations 3. To provide perches for birds, which then, in turn, bring seeds back to the landscape 4. To create habitat and shelter for insects and small mammals 5. To create pockets where seeds can grow 6. To learn quickly. Trees take 5-10 years to grow enough to really represent a strong opportunity for diversity, but we can immediately see what birds are nesting on our leaky weirs, what animals come to investigate, and what plants take root in the crevices 7. To create opportunities within the landscape. When water is racing down a perfectly cut channel, it's a very simple energy system. But natural systems aren’t linear and simple. Natural systems are chaotic — and chaos is opportunity. Leaky weirs bring some of this chaos back to the landscape, enabling species to return to and interact with the area in unexpected ways 8. Because building them is easy, fun and rewarding Learn more about leaky weirs in the latest edition of The Quoin Journal: