How can Australia secure a nature-positive future?

The Murex snail is an unusual metaphor for nature positive policy

Over 3,600 years ago, Phoenicians living in the Lebanese city of Tyre discovered that boiling “stinky sea snails” created a dye known as Tyrian purple.

According to Luke Heilbuth, CEO of sustainability advisory firm BWD, this dye was like “magic” as the colour intensified with wear.  

Tyrian purple was so remarkable that only the wealthiest citizens – think Cleopatra and Julius Caesar – were deemed fit to wear clothes made from the Murex snail’s shell.

“In time, though, the Phoenicians killed their golden goose. Tens of thousands of snails were needed to colour a single swatch of fabric, and eventually the Murex went extinct on the Mediterranean shore. Tyre never recovered the wealth and status it had once enjoyed. Sadly, nothing much has changed,” Luke said.

Luke and Stéphan Willemse, Strategy Director with New Zealand’s Digital Arts Network, presented two of the most thought-provoking sessions at the AdaptNSW 2024 Forum. While diving into megatrends and the metacrisis, both shared insights into how Australia can chart a course towards a nature positive future.

Long-term prosperity is dependent on well-functioning ecosystems. Everything we produce, from chocolate to microchips, relies on the health of the air, soil, water, plants and animals hiding in plain sight.

Luke Heilbuth, CEO, BWD 

Paying the true price for nature decline

“Businesses increasingly recognise nature’s importance but are slow to recognise the obvious link between the environment and their pursuit of profit,” Luke noted.

“Like the Roman emperor who never thought of the snail behind his rarified cloak… businesses have never priced externalities.”

A 2022 review by the World Benchmarking Alliance found that just 5% of 400 of the world’s most influential companies truly understood their environmental impacts.

“Much of this disconnect stems from the complexity of nature. Just as we struggle to grasp exponential growth, we lack the systems thinking to understand nature’s dynamic interdependencies. Our risk management frameworks aim to isolate risks, assuming they can be managed linearly… but nature doesn’t work this way.”

The statistics are sobering. Since 1970, vertebrate populations have declined by an average of 69%, Luke shared. Plastic weighs twice as much as all the animals on Earth combined. Ecosystems are crumbling under the weight of human activity. Luke called this destruction “ecocide”.

Stéphan pointed to Sir David Attenborough’s dire warning that the “natural world is fading” and, without acting, this “will lead to our destruction”. According to Planetary Health Check, we have breached six of the nine planetary boundaries and seven 'tipping points' are at risk, he said.

On the “flipside” are the stories from history of humans with empathetic world views, equitable economics, regenerative systems and participative democracy, Stéphan added.

“Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua [in the Māori language] means ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past’. We will find lessons from the past and things that we can learn. And we can apply those to what’s lying ahead of us.”

Drivers for a future powered by nature

Three drivers could propel Australians to take action to address nature-related risks, the AdaptNSW 2024 Forum audience heard. These are:

1. Economics: Over half of global GDP is highly dependent on nature and the ecosystem services it provides., Luke said “When ecosystems collapse, economies follow.” This reality is pushing nature to the forefront of public and corporate agendas.
2. Regulation: The Global Biodiversity Framework, with a pledge to restore 30% of the planet by 2030, and Australia’s Nature Repair Act are setting the stage for meaningful action. Luke predicted that mandatory nature-related financial disclosures could become a reality in Australia by 2027.
3. Net zero transition: Coal exports are worth $55 billion annually to New South Wales, but Australia’s trading partners are committed to net zero by 2050. Long-term policy certainty will secure Australia’s future; without that “our future prosperity is at stake,” Luke said.

Raze, rebuild, renew

Fire, “both destructive and regenerative”, serves as a power metaphor for Stéphan Willemse. Fire is a reminder that moments of crisis also hold potential for renewal, he said.

Both speakers agreed the path forward lies in reimagining institutions, adopting systems thinking and prioritising strong, forward-thinking governance. “Without long-term policy certainty, the global capital we need to secure New South Wales’ future won’t come,” Luke said.

Policymakers can design incentives that make sustainable investments so attractive that changing course becomes politically impossible. A surprising example came from Texas, which leads the United States in renewable energy investment because the “economic returns were too good for Republican governors to ignore”.

Stéphan extended this argument, calling for a new social contract that balances rights with responsibilities and recognise the “long arc of our actions”.

“Now is the time to introduce new laws and political norms that unite the best of science, technology and First Nations traditions of stewardship and care that show us what it means to live sustainability.”

The NSW Government is moving ahead with its NSW Plan for Nature. On the last day of Parliament in 2024, the NSW Government passed the Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Offsets Scheme) Bill 2024. This is the first step in the government’s long-planned changes to protect biodiversity. More changes are expected in 2025 as the Plan for Nature is implemented. 

Check out more stories from the AdaptNSW Forum 2024.