Overview
If you own BioBanking credits and/or have a credit obligation from the previous BioBanking Scheme —under the repealed Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW)— you can apply for an assessment of reasonable credit equivalence. This assessment can be made under transitional arrangements established by the Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation 2017 (NSW). Learn about BioBanking transitional arrangements.
Under these transitional arrangements:
- any BioBanking credits you hold are preserved (you still hold them)
- any credit obligations that were issued to you under the repealed Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW) are preserved
- the Environment Agency Head can determine the reasonable credit equivalence of these BioBanking credits or credit obligations to the new Biodiversity Offsets Scheme credit numbers and classes.
When to apply for an assessment of reasonable equivalence
You should apply for an assessment of reasonable equivalence if you:
- own BioBanking credits and you wish to sell these to someone with a credit obligation created under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW)
- have a BioBanking credit obligation under the repealed Threatened Species Conservation Act and wish to retire credits to meet that obligation
- have a BioBanking credit obligation under the repealed Threatened Species Conservation Act and wish to discharge that obligation by payment into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund. See Pay into the fund to offset development.
If you require a modification of your consent condition for a development, you should not use this process. You should instead approach the consent authority for your development.
You can still transfer and retire BioBanking credits that match BioBanking credit obligations and do not need an assessment of reasonable credit equivalence to do this. Learn more about Biodiversity credits.
Find credits to match Biodiversity Offsets Scheme equivalent credits or obligations
To search for Biodiversity Offsets Scheme equivalent credits that match your equivalent credit obligation, you must:
- check Search for biodiversity credits to find out if any credits matching those required are still identified as issued
- contact the owner of the BioBanking credits and request their Credit Ownership Report to review information about the equivalent Biodiversity Offsets Scheme credits they currently hold.
Statutory background for assessments of reasonable biodiversity credit equivalence
Transitional arrangements allow for the Environment Agency Head to determine:
- how biodiversity credits created under the repealed Threatened Species Conservation Act are reasonably equivalent to those created under the Biodiversity Conservation Act (Part 6). That means that any BioBanking credits that were issued (but not retired or cancelled) before the repeal are preserved. This is regulated under Clause 19(1) of the Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation 2017.
- the reasonable equivalence of BioBanking credits to be retired under an existing Threatened Species Conservation Act statutory obligation. This is regulated under clause 22(3) of the Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation.