What we do

The BCT's purpose is partnering with landholders to enhance and conserve biodiversity across NSW.

Our vision is vibrant private land conservation areas protecting our unique and diverse plants and animals.

Our aspirational aims over the four-year period (2021-2025) of our business plan are to:  

• enter 400 private land conservation agreements with landholders 
• secure 200,000 hectares of new conservation areas 
• protect examples of another 50 unique under-represented NSW landscapes.  

The BCT's four strategic goals are to:  

• increase private land conservation in areas of strategic biodiversity value 
• deliver efficient, effective and strategic biodiversity offset outcomes 
• support participating landholders to conserve biodiversity  
• promote public knowledge, appreciation and understanding of biodiversity and the importance of conservation.

How we work

You can find out more about how the BCT works by reading our current business plan or exploring our website:

• On our ‘Private land conservation’ pages, you can read about private land conservation, the benefits of getting involved, stories about our existing agreement holders, and updates on the outcomes achieved to date. 
• You can find out more about our three major programs and our various delivery mechanisms on the ‘Our work’ pages. 
• Read about our educational work on out Biodiversity Conservation Education page. 
• To find out more about how to participate in our programs, look through our ‘Get involved’ and ‘resources’ pages. 
• You can read about the way we do business at the BCT in our Statement of business ethics
• For more information about the service we provide at the BCT, read our customer service charter and guarantee of service.

Australian Business Number (ABN)

The Biodiversity Conservation Trust is registered for GST. Our Australian Business Number (ABN) for general business is 37 151 321 702.

Funding 

The BCT is funded in three ways:

• The NSW Government has committed more than $350 million over the next five years from 2019–2020 to fund the BCT to deliver its private land conservation programs. 
• Developers or governments can fund the BCT to acquire biodiversity stewardship sites that offset biodiversity losses from development. 
• People, companies or philanthropists can make donations to the BCT Public Fund to support the BCT’s biodiversity conservation objectives (the BCT hopes to receive deductible gift recipient status so that people can make tax-free donations). 

Funds and Investment Management

Under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, the BCT is to manage and control the Biodiversity Conservation Fund (BCF). In addition to general operational resources, this fund is used to hold the funds set aside and invested to be used to make annual conservation payments to holders of funded conservation agreements (CAs), which are either in-perpetuity or long-term agreements.

Under the Act, a Fund Manager is to manage and control the Biodiversity Stewardship Payments Fund (BSPF). The BCT is appointed as the Fund Manager. This fund is used to hold the funds set aside and invested to be used to make annual stewardship payments to holders of biodiversity stewardship agreements (BSAs), which are all in-perpetuity.

The Act requires the BCT to ‘act as trustee of money or other property vested in the Trust’, establishing a fiduciary duty to ensure that funds are managed prudentially, particularly the large sums of money held in the BSPF and BCF to meet future stewardship or conservation management payment obligations to agreement holders.

The members of the BCT Board must fulfil their fiduciary duties to the NSW Government, the Minister, the BCT’s landholders and stakeholders, and BCT itself. As directors, the members of the BCT Board also have general statutory duties of loyalty and good faith, and of care and diligence.

For these reasons, the BCT Board has approved a Risk Appetite Statement and a Funds and Investment Management Framework which sets out policies and procedures to be implemented by the BCT.

Among other things, the framework requires the BCT to seek investment advice from TCorp and actuarial advice and modelling on a regular basis, to ensure the Board can consider and approve investment arrangements that prudentially balance investment returns and risk.  

Results from the BCT fund and investment management will be disclosed in the BCT’s annual reports.

Key publications 

• Biodiversity Conservation Investment Strategy (BCIS) 2018
  The Minister for the Environment has made the Biodiversity Conservation Investment Strategy. The BCT is required by law to be guided by the strategy. 
  Read the BCIS 2018 here.
• BCT's Business Plans
  The BCT is required under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 to publish a business plan every four years, and an annual report on its activities, including goals, plans for achieving those goals, plans for investing money and managing returns, and data management. Additionally, annual reports include the progress made in the previous financial year against the goals identified in the BCT’s business plan. 
  • BCT Business Plan 2021-22 to 2024-25 (PDF)
  • BCT Business Plan 2017-18 to 2020-21 (PDF) 
• Annual Reports
  The BCT's Annual Reports showcase the BCT's achievements during each year.
  Click here to view all BCT Annual Reports.

Biodiversity Conservation Investment Strategy (BCIS) 2018

The BCT is required by law to be guided by the BCIS, which is available on the EES website. The BCIS is made by the Minister on the advice of the EES group within DCCEEW.