Client: Pollination Foundation
Project: Marketplace for Nature
Platform: WordPress + Elementor Pro + JetEngine by Crocoblock
Key Features: Interactive filterable map, parent-child project relationships, resource library, user submission workflows, data import from Google Sheets/Excel, newsletter integration
This was one of them.
Pollination Foundation, an Australian not-for-profit working at the intersection of nature conservation and Indigenous equity, came to Yirra Miya with a project that had outgrown its original form. A few years earlier, they had built a simple online map of biodiversity credit market schemes. Twenty projects had become two hundred. The data was multiplying faster than the platform could hold it. And the vision had expanded too. They weren’t just mapping what existed anymore. They were building a readiness toolkit that would navigate a rapidly emerging and complex global industry.
They needed a new website. Not just a redesign. A complete rebuild, from architecture to interface, capable of carrying real complexity real responsibility.
The brief was layered. At its core, the needed to replace the existing Marketplace for Nature site with a searchable, filterable platform that served four distinct audiences:
Filterable by location, project type, and status; capable of displaying parent organisations linked to their child projects; with clustering and spiderfy functionality for overlapping map points. At launch: approximately 60 parent schemes and 120 daughter projects, with data imported directly from existing Google Sheets.
A searchable, filterable database of practical tools, guides, checklists, case studies, and documents. Around 87 resources at the time of briefing, anticipated to grow to 150 by launch. Data to be imported from Excel and Google Sheets, with ongoing editorial control by the Pollination team.
The ability for external users to propose new projects and resources for inclusion. Each new form is saved as a draft project or resource on the back end, allowing the team to manually review before publication, with spam protection built in.
Because content was being co-designed with communities and subject to ongoing consultation, the team needed to be able to edit, update, and add to the site without needing a developer every time.
The visual direction was shaped by the branding Pollination Foundation's in-house designer had already developed for the Marketplace for Nature. My job was to bring it to life in a way that felt credible, grounded, and deeply usable, from someone in rural Canada looking for a peer network to a Melbourne funder wanting a regional overview.
Clean typographic hierarchy. Generous whitespace. A palette anchored in black and white with natural imagery that quietly communicates what the platform is about.
The design restraint was intentional. When your content is maps of biodiversity projects across six continents and a library of governance tools for Indigenous Nations, the design's job is to get out of the way and let people find what they came for.
The map is the site’s centrepiece and its most technically demanding element. Built to display and filter hundreds of nature market initiatives globally, it supports layered filtering by project status (active or emerging), Indigenous-led designation, and geographic region. Parent scheme profiles link to their associated daughter projects — so a user can navigate from a certifying body down to an individual initiative on the ground in Indonesia or Zimbabwe.
Clustering and spiderfy functionality prevents the map from becoming visually unreadable in regions where projects overlap. The result is a map that scales — built to grow as the market grows.
The resource library does what most libraries don’t: it actually helps you find things. Every resource is tagged by topic, region, and type, with controlled vocabulary for consistency. Filters like *readiness*, *partnership*, *Indigenous-led*, and *governance* mean a user can move from broad to specific without getting lost.
At launch, the library contained 87 curated resources. The architecture supports ongoing growth without requiring a rebuild.
Both the projects directory and the resource library include a submission pathway, allowing practitioners, communities, and organisations to propose new entries for review. Spam protection is built into the submission forms. Nothing goes live without manual sign-off from the Pollination team, maintaining the platform’s credibility as a curated, trustworthy resource.
The site was built for a team that needed to make updates regularly, i.e. adding new resources, refining project data, and responding to feedback from collaborators as consultation progressed. Editorial control sits entirely with the Marketplace for Nature team, without developer dependency.
A mailing list popup enables visitors to stay connected as the toolkit grows with new resources, new initiatives, new training opportunities. Community-building is built into the infrastructure of the site itself.
Built on WordPress with Elementor Pro, the site uses custom post types and dynamic filtering, powered by JetEngine by Crocoblock, to manage the structured data behind both the map and the resource library. Parent-child relationships between schemes and projects are handled through linked post types, allowing complex navigational relationships to display cleanly across the front end.
Data was imported directly from the client's existing Google Sheets and Excel files into structured content types, preserving the team's existing workflows while upgrading the platform's capability significantly.
The site was developed on a staging domain for live review and client feedback, then migrated to Marketplace for Nature's hosting on sign-off.
Marketplace for Nature launched as a credible, navigable, and genuinely useful platform, one that serves a community doing important work in a space that's moving fast.
It's a map. A library. A toolkit. A place to find peers, identify opportunities, and access the practical resources needed to participate in nature markets with confidence.
