Wilderlands has received the 2026 International Land Conservation Network Conservation Innovation Award, recognising the Biological Diversity Unit (BDU) as an innovation with measurable outcomes, international relevance and the potential to support conservation in other geographies.

At the ALCA26 Conference Dinner in Hobart, Wilderlands was presented with the 2026 International Land Conservation Network (ILCN) Conservation Innovation Award.

We were unanimously selected by the award committee from more than 30 nominations around the world.

ILCN recognised Wilderlands for our international relevance, demonstrable conservation outcomes, and the design and implementation of the Biological Diversity Unit, alongside our leadership in the voluntary nature credit market.

It is an important moment for Wilderlands. But what makes this recognition particularly meaningful is the community it comes from.

Recognition from the conservation community

The ILCN connects private and civic land conservation practitioners from around the world. Its members include people and organisations who have spent decades building the knowledge, relationships and institutions required to protect important landscapes.

The Conservation Innovation Award recognises landmark innovations that demonstrate novelty, strategic significance, measurable effectiveness, transferability and enduring impact.

These qualities closely reflect the principles on which Wilderlands was built. But this is not recognition of a company working in isolation.

Wilderlands did not invent conservation covenants, ecological monitoring, habitat management or private land conservation. Those foundations have been developed over many years by landholders, Traditional Owners, ecologists, conservation organisations, policymakers and practitioners.

Our innovation has been to bring those foundations together in a model designed to make high-integrity conservation more legible and accessible to businesses, philanthropists and other funders.

Making conservation easier to understand and support

The question at the heart of Wilderlands has always been:

How can we translate meaningful conservation into something decision-makers can understand, participate in and ultimately fund, without compromising the integrity of the conservation itself?

A Biological Diversity Unit, or BDU, represents one square metre of high-value native habitat that is permanently protected through a conservation covenant and actively managed.

Each unit is georeferenced and connected to a defined conservation project. The model includes 20 years of funded ecological management, ongoing monitoring and reporting, Wilderlands’ BIOTA biodiversity integrity assessment, and a 20 per cent project buffer.

These features matter because the value of the model does not lie in creating a credit for its own sake. It lies in helping direct additional resources towards conservation that is permanent, actively managed, measurable and transparent.

Since Wilderlands launched in 2022, more than 500,000 BDUs have been purchased. That represents meaningful support for conservation, but it remains small relative to the scale of the biodiversity challenge.

The work ahead is much larger than any one organisation or model.

An innovation built on strong foundations

This award belongs as much to the wider conservation community as it does to Wilderlands.

It belongs to landholders willing to protect land for the long term; Traditional Owners bringing cultural knowledge, custodianship and leadership; ecologists designing and delivering management plans; conservation organisations building trusted relationships; and buyers and supporters willing to back a new model.

It also recognises the work of the Wilderlands and Cassinia Environmental teams and the partners who have helped turn an idea into conservation activity on the ground.

We are especially grateful to Chandni Navalkha and Jody Gunn, whose support has helped Wilderlands engage with the broader international land conservation community.

What this can enable on the ground

Coorong Lakes in South Australia shows what this kind of model can support.

The project encompasses approximately 200 hectares of remnant native vegetation and is grounded in the relationship between Cassinia Environmental and Ngarrindjeri Traditional Owners.

BDU funding supports the permanent protection and ecological management of the property. BDU sales are also supporting the permanent return of 200 hectares of native vegetation to Ngarrindjeri Traditional Owners, a process that is currently underway.

The landscape is home to 85 native bird species, 249 native plant species and the nationally endangered Metallic Sun-orchid. These are not abstract units or figures. They represent a real place, living systems and a long-term conservation relationship.

Recent Wilderlands conservation immersions have brought representatives from major Australian organisations to Coorong Lakes to spend time on Country and experience this work firsthand.

People often leave asking how they can translate what they have seen into decisions within their own organisations.

That question points to the role Wilderlands increasingly wants to play: helping bridge the space between high-quality conservation on the ground and the people and institutions capable of funding more of it.

Taking the next step

Transferability was one of the qualities for which Wilderlands was recognised.

The award includes a US$10,000 stipend specifically intended to support the dissemination and transfer of the innovation into other geographies and jurisdictions.

We have always intended for the BDU methodology to be adaptable beyond Australia. This does not mean assuming that a model developed here can simply be applied elsewhere unchanged.

It means sharing what we have learned, listening to the experience of other conservation communities, forming new partnerships and testing how the underlying principles might work in different ecological, cultural and legal contexts.

With the ILCN Global Congress coming to Melbourne in 2027, there will be another timely opportunity for Australian conservation practitioners to connect with the international community and exchange ideas.

We are deeply honoured to receive this recognition from ILCN and grateful to the Australian Land Conservation Alliance for bringing the sector together in Hobart.

The award is encouragement to keep learning, keep building and keep working with others to bring more resources into permanent conservation without compromising the integrity of the work itself.