A Look At The Threatened Species Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Act 2006

The Threatened Species Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Act 2006 was commenced on 4 December 2006. It inserts a new part into the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1997 (being Part 7A) which provides for a voluntary biobanking scheme to be implemented.

In summary the main elements of the scheme are as follows:

• a landowner can enter into a biobanking agreement with the Minister for the Environment for their land to be a biobank site. Once entered into, that land is secured and managed in perpetuity to protect the biodiversity values of the site

• the landowner of the biobank site is given biodiversity credits for managing the land. The biodiversity credits may then be traded (most likely to developers) and a portion of the funds generated by the sale would be used for the future management of the site