Despite making up only around 5% of the world’s population, indigenous people protect an estimated 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity.
The Ngarrindjeri have lived near Lake Albert in Coorong National Park in South Australia for generations, but the area’s unique wetlands ecosystem is under threat, degraded by intensive agriculture and climate change. Now the Ngarrindjeri are working with restoration specialists Cassinia to protect this sacred landscape.

Cassinia builds on the traditional knowledge and skills of indigenous people, developing new business models so the Ngarrindjeri and others can play their part as guardians of the land. Instruments like carbon credits offer a new way of placing a financial value on natural capital, incentivising and rewarding indigenous people for looking after the land they live in. This model could help protect and restore land owned and managed by indigenous people all over the world.