Australia’s agricultural landscapes are facing growing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss and decades of soil and water degradation. Resilient landscapes are essential for long-term productivity and sustainability – but current systems for monitoring and restoring them are often too complex, expensive or fragmented for practical use. The Landscape Function Toolkit (LiFT) offers a simple, accessible way to understand, measure and improve landscape function, the foundation of healthy ecosystems that can bounce back from droughts, floods and fire. By focusing on how well a landscape retains water, cycles nutrients and supports biodiversity, LiFT brings landscape resilience into clearer focus for landholders and decision-makers alike.
The challenge is that many farming landscapes across Australia are hydrologically dysfunctional, with invisible damage to water cycling and soil systems. Current monitoring tools are often siloed– focusing only on carbon or vegetation – and designed for researchers, not farmers. There is poor awareness of how degraded water cycles reduce climate resilience, and many landholders lack the tools or confidence to diagnose and track the impact of land management decisions. Outdated resources, low literacy around system-wide processes, and high costs make it difficult to scale restoration or meet new demands from natural capital and compliance frameworks.
LiFT meets this need with an innovative, co-designed toolkit supported by First Nations knowledge holders, scientists, and regenerative farmers. It will deliver adaptable workflows, a digital data platform and engaging resources – like animations and infographics – to make complex landscape dynamics understandable and actionable. With the backing of partners including Aurecon, WaterNSW, and Mulloon Institute, and aligned with nature repair markets, LiFT will empower landholders to monitor change, verify outcomes and access new funding opportunities. This whole-of-system approach makes LiFT a powerful enabler of climate resilience, ecological restoration and economic opportunity across Australia’s agricultural landscapes.
Read the full story over on our Current Projects page, and please take part in a short survey designed to gather insights into landholder preferences around monitoring.
LiFT PROJECT
