Australia

Innovative conservation solutions for Australia — and beyond

Founded in 2020, Conservation International-Australia is one of our newest country offices, supporting innovative financing and science to drive conservation locally and throughout the region.

In Australia, Our team is working to draw more attention, funding and opportunities to the country’s coastal ecosystems — areas that, despite years of poor development planning, are rich in biodiversity, store vital carbon, and hold immense cultural and economic value. We are supporting the participation of Indigenous Peoples and unlocking funding streams for the long-term care of Australia's "sea country."

We also operate as a key fundraising arm for Conservation International's Asia-Pacific and global programs. Via partnerships with the private sector, government and individuals, we actively support the protection of nature in Asia-Pacific — from revitalizing ocean custodianship among Samoa’s schoolchildren to helping improve conservation planning in Indonesia by funding tiger monitoring.

Our mission is to provide urgent and innovative conservation solutions that support both people and nature.

Highlight project

Partnering to restore seagrass in Shark Bay

Remote, vast and wildly beautiful, Shark Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Area on the western-most tip of Australia. The region was granted World Heritage status in part due to the significance of its seagrass meadows, which shelter a huge diversity of marine life and lock vast stores of ancient carbon beneath their roots. This is the home of the Malgana people, who have a 30,000-year connection to this, their "sea country."

Conservation International is partnering with Tidal Moon, a Malgana-owned and crewed company, to restore seagrass lost in a huge heatwave in 2011. An estimated 25 percent of Shark Bay's seagrass meadows perished in the heatwave — much of which has not recovered — directly impacting biodiversity. Of additional concern is the release of carbon as the seafloor erodes without the seagrass to hold it in place.

Tidal Moon is integrating seagrass replanting with their budding sea-cucumber business, partly in recognition of the co-dependent relationship between seagrass and sea cucumbers. The restoration is of global importance, but it is an expensive undertaking. Conservation International-Australia is working with Tidal Moon to build their scale and capacity to the point where they may be able to sell carbon and biodiversity credits to the market to fund their restoration work well into the future.

Success in Shark Bay will be a national win from a climate and biodiversity standpoint. Equally importantly, it will blaze a trail with a new, nature-positive business model for other communities and Indigenous-led projects to follow.

Where we work in Australia

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