Supporting the Agricultural Enterprise Credit (AEC) scheme proposal
Sydney's food belt is experiencing the pressure of the city's spread and the organisers of a proposed solution for farmers turned to ISF.
In 2016, Wollondilly Shire Council was in the process of ratifying a proposal to incentivise farming in Sydney's outer fringe. Under the proposed Agricultural Enterprise Credit (AEC) scheme, farmers would be awarded saleable credits based on the value or amount of they food produced in any year. Those credits could then be sold to developers, who would use them to intensify (e.g. by adding extra storeys to a building) already approved developments.
ISF was asked to provide research that would support the proposal, including a comprehensive literature review and interviews with prospective scheme stakeholders to find our their attitudes towards the conceptual and operational development of the Scheme.
The resulting report prepared by ISF helped to convince Wollondilly Shire Council members to approve the scheme, which has since been endorsed by councils across NSW and is an adopted policy for the peak body, Local Government New South Wales.
The scheme is the first of its kind to be implemented anywhere in the world, and it is hoped that its model will be taken up nationally and even internationally in the future.
Assessing the scheme
Wollondilly Shire Council again commissioned ISF in 2018, to assess the performance of the AEC scheme. This provided a unique opportunity to understand how a collective finance mechanism could support adaptation activities such as the preservation of peri-urban ‘green’ space, and encourage expansion of peri-urban food systems, contributing to food resilience in the Sydney metropolitan area.
At the same time, ISF researchers worked on a separate case study of the AEC concept for the Office of Environment and Heritage. This case study, focusing on financing climate change adaptation involved a background literature and policy review, that positioned the AEC scheme within existing policy and practice context. This included analysis of how the AEC scheme would work in comparison to other financial mechanisms with the same – or similar – aims, while highlighting the unique characteristics of AECs.
The case study also included interviews with key stakeholders about the scheme concept and how it contributed to the preservation and encouragement of agricultural production in areas covered by the scheme.
RESEARCH OUTPUTS
Conceptual development of the Agricultural Enterprise Credit Scheme (2020) (Report)
Years
- 2016-2019
- 2018-2020
Client
- Wollondilly Shire Council
Researchers
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Research Director -
Senior Research Consultant -
Research Principal
