Challenge
Moorlands Biodynamic Lamb (Moorlands) is a 3,000-acre farming business based in the Southern Tablelands, New South Wales. Moorlands aims to restore their entire property back to the original grassy woodland condition with 30% canopy cover. This goal requires clear data and insights into biodiversity and ecosystem health.
There is a lack of clear, visual data on the species located on Moorlands’ property and across the surrounding landscape. This makes it difficult for Moorlands to prioritise land management actions, track changes over time, and measure biodiversity on the farm. This includes effectively monitoring threatened and invasive species populations.
Impact
Location
Sector
Strategy and Actions
Addressing the challenge of quantifying on-farm biodiversity was a strategic priority for Moorlands to ensure that their land management activities were having a positive environmental impact.
To address the challenge, Moorlands partnered with NatureHelm to aggregate species datasets and translate biodiversity data. This was achieved by leveraging a combination of remote sensing and ground-based biodiversity data, linked to sector-specific ecosystem services and impact drivers to evaluate Moorlands farm.
This approach provides Moorlands with a clear environmental baseline, allowing them to track changes over time and identify areas for targeted restoration.
The NatureHelm platform also can aggregate and analyse data from multiple sources, including on-the-ground observations, satellite imagery, and public species databases.
Moorlands can use this data to quantify its environmental progress over time and then communicate this to their stakeholders. By leveraging monitoring technology, Moorlands has transformed its environmental stewardship from a set of values into a measurable, reportable, and profitable business strategy.
"At Moorlands Lamb, we are committed to building up the resilience of the land. The work with NatureHelm has allowed us to quantify the positive impact our of land management. This has helped build trust with our customers, unlock new opportunities and solidify our position as we strive to be leaders in sustainable and regenerative agriculture."
- Vince Heffernan, Moorlands Lamb
Outcomes and lessons learned
The partnership between Moorlands and NatureHelm is an example of how clear biodiversity data can help bridge the gap between environmental stewardship and agribusiness. This is through:
- Visually demonstrating how sustainable land management is enhancing on-farm biodiversity to key stakeholders.
- Informing the prioritisation of biodiversity management and monitoring options, based on species records and their status (e.g. threatened, invasive).
- Providing insights from both existing and new monitoring datasets that are of direct relevance to regenerative agriculture.
- Establishing a farmer-led monitoring program coupled with data visualisations to track changes to biodiversity and land management over time and understand if actions on the ground are having the intended positive impact.
Road ahead
Moorlands is looking to expand the scope and scale of its farmer-led biodiversity monitoring program.
The farming business has now purchased its first acoustic recording devices, with real-time automated AI identification of bird calls. These will be placed strategically around the property to capture data on the seasonal changes in biodiversity over time. This includes surveying different habitats across the property, ranging from wetlands and rivers to native grasslands and woodlands, as well as tracking an abundance of threatened species such as Superb Parrots which nest on this property every year.
These surveys will also capture new data on a suite of species including birds, bats, and frogs. These species all provide ecosystem services such as pest control, nutrient cycling and soil enrichment.
About NatureHelm
NatureHelm is a location-specific biodiversity data platform. The platform transforms biodiversity data into clear, site-specific insights. By connecting species function, ecosystem services, and sector-specific impacts, NatureHelm enables businesses to identify nature-related risks and opportunities.
Embedding nature in net zero planning and implementation
Investing in a nature positive future
