IPART is monitoring the NSW Biodiversity Credit Market
Healthy biodiversity is important for the quality of life of current and future generations. The biodiversity credits market plays a key role within the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme to ensure biodiversity losses due to development or land clearing are offset by equivalent biodiversity gains at a price that reflects the efficient cost of conserving biodiversity.
We have been asked to monitor the biodiversity credits market for 3 years from 2022-23 and make findings and recommendations with the aim of:
- maintaining and promoting competition
- addressing the interests of existing and potential biodiversity market participants, and supporting fair trading
- identifying opportunities to improve market efficiency and address market failure.
In December 2024, we published our second Annual Report which assessed the performance of the credits market in 2023-24. We found that the market continues to have issues that prevent it from functioning effectively, relating to aspects of the market such as pricing, trading and governance. To address these issues, we recommended changes to trading mechanisms, governance and information access.
Key contact
Rhea Rachel - Rhea.Rachel@ipart.nsw.gov.au and Kira van Os - kira.vanos@ipart.nsw.gov.au