A REPORT investigating a biodiversity certification scheme that would reward farmers for looking after their natural environment is set to released in the coming weeks.
The report is the first step in a pilot scheme being developed by the National Farmers Federation, and aims to reward farmers for managing biodiversity on their property through market-based mechanisms.
The report, being conducted by the Australian Farm Institute, will be released on July 15.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic put a spanner in the works for the consultation process, hundreds of people still provided feedback.
More than 500 people were directly consulted via webinars, a further 260 farmers took part in a survey and dozens of one-on-one meetings were held with various stakeholders ranging from Woolworths to Landcare.
The report also included a review of the types of biodiversity frameworks that already exist, both in Australia and around the world.
While the report is yet to be finalised, a NFF spokesperson said it expected to reveal that given the amount of existing programs, there wouldn't be any value in starting from scratch.