Chance to make biobanking more user-friendly

The proposed methodology for NSW's new biobanking scheme has just been released for comment. As it is highly technical, and will lead to increased compliance costs for users, this is an important opportunity to shape it and make it more user-friendly for business.

What does biobanking do?

The biobanking scheme established by the Threatened Species Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Act 2006 (NSW) offers various commercial and environmental opportunities to landowners and developers alike, particularly:

• financial opportunities for landowners who can generate income by conserving endangered plants, animals and ecosystems on their land;
• greater flexibility for developers during the development approval process by allowing them to bypass the current threatened species survey and environmental impact assessment regime under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW).

How will the proposed methodology work?

The proposed methodology is necessarily complex and technical. Various matters are taken into account when calculating credits and assessing the relative ecological values of the areas of land, including the condition of environmental values, the state of the landscape and, where relevant, the number and types of threatened species.

Basically, it assesses the loss of biodiversity values as a consequence of development on a particular area of land, as well as the likely improvement in biodiversity values from managing a biobank site. It also provides the way in which credits are calculated.

Broadly speaking, the methodology ensures that

• both the development site and the biobank site are ecologically similar; and
• biodiversity losses on the development site must be counterbalanced by "like for like or better" outcomes on the biobank site.

Consequently, developers seeking to use credits as an offset to development must ensure that the credits are obtained from a biobank site with the same or better conservation significance as the development site.

So what's next?

Comments on the proposed methodology must be in by Friday 1 February 2008. The scheme will come into force in the first half of 2008.

In early 2008, the DECC will be making the "Biobanking Credit Calculator" software available to help prospective participants work out what credits are likely to be generated from creating a biobanking site on a particular piece of land, as well as what credits will be required for specific developments.