Under Division 2 of Part 9 the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, the BCT is required (under a delegation from the Environment Agency Head) to maintain a public register of private land conservation agreements.
This includes wildlife refuge agreements, funded and partnership conservation agreements, and biodiversity stewardship agreements (and equivalent past agreements).
The register is not only a legal requirement, it is also a key way for the BCT to ensure transparency in the work that we do. It is a useful resource for the BCT’s stakeholders, existing agreement holders, and other landholders considering private land conservation.
As required by the regulations the register includes, for all agreements; an identification number, the type of agreement, the commencement date, the local government area, the IBRA subregion, the area of the agreement in hectares and the term of the agreement.
For biodiversity stewardship agreements, the register also includes the biodiversity assessment report (with consent from the landholder) and the number and class of biodiversity credits created.
To ensure compliance with the NSW privacy law, the BCT may add additional details about agreements with the consent of agreement holders. This may include the names of current and previous owners of the land, the lot and DP numbers, and a copy of the agreement and its management plan.
The current version of the public register only includes new agreements entered between the BCT and landholders.
The NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust's searchable public register is available here
The complete list of agreements available to view on the register can be found here [.XLSX]
Biobanking agreements entered in the past between the Office of Environment and Heritage and landholders can currently be found here. The BCT has expanded the register to include all 190 biobanking agreements, which are now deemed to be biodiversity stewardship agreements and managed by the BCT. Agreements maybe varied with the landholder. These are identified in the register by for example BA00123_01.
The BCT’s role in relation to 'Set Aside Conservation Agreements', is limited to signing the agreement, registering the agreement on title and publishing the agreement on the public register of private land conservation agreements. The Agreement with the landholder has been developed by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) consistent with the processes prescribed in the NSW Government’s ‘Policy for resolving investigations under the now repealed Native Vegetation Act 2003’. DCCEEW is responsible for the ongoing management of the Agreement with the landholder, including landholder support, compliance, ecological monitoring, responding to any requests from landholders to vary or terminate the agreement, and reporting (including reporting of outcomes under the agreement). Please contact 1300 361 967 should you require any further information about a Set Aside Conservation Agreement.
Set Aside Conservation Agreements can be viewed here [.PDF]
While the Act only requires the register to list agreements entered under Part 5 of the Act, the BCT will progressively add equivalent information on other private land conservation agreements entered by landholders and pre-BCT organisations. The BCT will need to contact each agreement holder before any information is published on the register. There are about 1,650 such agreements.
For more information, please get in touch by phone on 1300 992 688 or email info@bct.nsw.gov.au.