Prime Minister announces biodiversity scheme

The federal government has announced it will create a biodiversity credits scheme to “kickstart nation-wide restoration”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced the creation of a biodiversity credits scheme, rewarding landholders who restore local habitat.

The scheme appears identical to the biodiversity stewardship package announced by former Agriculture Minister David Littleproud in May last year under the Coalition government.

The Coalition’s “world-first” scheme was also designed to enable farmers to undertake projects that enhance or protect biodiversity in native species and receive a tradeable certificate for doing so.

One of Mr Littleproud’s pet projects, it was created to facilitate private investment in projects that support biodiversity protection and restoration, and was to be administered by the Clean Energy Regulator.

The Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Market Bill 2022 was introduced into federal parliament in February but did not progress any further.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit 2022 held in Griffith PICTURE: Jonathan Ng

In Griffith for The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said his biodiversity certificates scheme would operate in parallel with carbon credits, also regulated by the Clean Energy Regulator.

He said in coming months the federal government would be consulting widely on the detailed rules for the scheme, such as how biodiversity benefits should be measured.

“As we move toward net zero, we are creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – not just to protect Australia’s natural environment but to kickstart a nationwide restoration,” Mr Albanese said.

“Our market will be open to all land managers – whether they’re farmers, people interested in conservation or Indigenous land managers.”

This appears to be the one point of difference between the scheme proposed by the Coalition, which was only open to farmers.

Mr Littleproud was pleased the federal government would “adopt The Nationals’ world-first biodiversity scheme and would reintroduce legislation to create the structural certainty for a market for biodiversity to operate”.

National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson welcomed the Prime Minister’s renewed committment to a biodiversity stewardship scheme.

“Australian farmers manage more than half of Australia’s landmass. This is an important stewardship role we undertake on behalf of all Australians.

“Linking farmers with investors who will partner with them to invest in environmental protection is a significant step forward in how we protect and care for our country,” Ms Simson said.

The Australian National University’s environmental policy specialist Prof Andrew Macintosh, credited as one of the architects of the Coalition’s scheme, said a functioning national biodiversity stewardship scheme was long overdue.

“This new scheme will provide a nationally consistent way of incentivising change and conservation through the use of financial incentives,” he said

Professor Macintosh warned it was not intended to generate biodiversity offset credits that could be used to compensate for biodiversity losses associated with development proposals.