Reef Credits Scheme — Great Barrier Reef Water Quality

The Reef Credit Scheme, pioneered by GreenCollar and administered by independent not-for-profit Eco-Markets Australia, is a voluntary environmental market designed to improve water quality across the Great Barrier Reef's 1.8 million km² catchment in Queensland, Australia.

Farmers and landholders — primarily sugarcane growers and graziers — adopt improved land management practices that reduce nutrient and sediment run-off into reef waterways. One Reef Credit is defined as one kilogram of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) prevented from entering waterways, or 538 kilograms of sediment. A pilot project in the Tully River Catchment generated 3,125 Reef Credits between January 2018 and December 2019; the first commercial sale was completed in October 2020 when HSBC purchased credits alongside the Queensland Government.

By mid-2024, over 50,000 Reef Credits had been generated across registered projects, representing more than 50 tonnes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen kept out of reef waterways. GreenCollar projects 6 million Reef Credits could be generated by 2030 as the market scales. The Queensland Government invested AU$10 million to kick-start the scheme, recruiting brokers to work with landholders on grazing and sugarcane properties.

The Great Barrier Reef — valued at AU$56 billion and supporting 64,000 jobs — faces reduced water quality as its most acute non-thermal pressure. The Reef Credits mechanism creates a direct financial incentive for upstream agricultural practice change, operating alongside regulatory water quality standards under the Reef Credit Standard verified by Eco-Markets Australia.

Read the full analysis: https://eco-markets.org.au/reef-credits/