Dr Rachael Marshall

Rachael is the General Manager and APAC Regional Director for Accounting for Nature, a global, scientifically credible, environmental condition accounting standard for measuring, monitoring, certifying, and reporting the condition of environmental assets. Rachael has a PhD in marine ecology and has led programs for both Western Australian and Queensland State Governments in conservation research and monitoring, land/sea management and policy/regulation reform. She has also worked in the private sector in areas of environmental economics and risk assurance. After spending nearly two decades working within research, government, and private industry sectors, Rachael concluded that collaboration between sectors was going to be fundamental in achieving national and state targets in climate change mitigation and natural capital restoration. Accounting for Nature is at the forefront of that nexus in applying science, economics and practical thinking to help inform better decision making and bringing integrity to investment in restoring and enhancing natural capital.

Biodiversity on the Balance Sheet: Ensuring Science Underpins Emerging Environmental Markets

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration represents an urgent call to arms for both public and private sectors to take unprecedented, large scale and impactful action to address the planetary emergencies of biodiversity loss and climate change. It is critical that nature finance is rapidly scaled so that global targets such as, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework are met. To do this, society needs to fully account for nature in strategy, economic, investment and risk management decisions, and bring nature onto the ledger, recognising that nature is an asset to be protected rather than exploited.

Organisations that depend on, and impact nature at any point along their supply chains are at risk of asset loss, productivity and financial loss, and loss of social licence. Under the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures, these organisations are increasingly being encouraged to disclose their nature-related risks which require organisations to disclose impacts on the state of nature, which can be difficult to measure. These organisations are simultaneously being encouraged to shift to nature-positive investments to manage these risks as well as offering opportunities through sustainable investment taxonomies and access to new and emerging environmental markets. Importantly, indications from existing and developing global environmental markets and biodiversity credit schemes suggest that transparency, integrity, and scientific rigour will be critical to ensure financial investment is delivering outcomes and enabling continued progress towards restoration goals. 

Accounting for Nature® is an independent environmental condition accounting framework for measuring, monitoring, certifying, and reporting the condition of environmental assets over time. The framework relies on summarising complex scientific information into a single metric – the Econd® so that condition can be easily understood and more easily incorporated into decision making and reporting. Recognised by the TNFD, the standard can be used to underpin nature-related risk and help to inform nature-related investment and opportunity, ultimately helping to direct finance into the restoration of global biodiversity.