What we do

Our purpose is to partner 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.  

Our 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 we work 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 in our Statement of business ethics
  • For more information about the service we provide, read our customer service charter and guarantee of service.

Australian Business Number (ABN)

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

Funding 

We are 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 tax deductible donations to the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust's Public Fund to support biodiversity conservation objectives. 

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 NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust 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 us 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 Board must fulfil their fiduciary duties to the NSW Government, the Minister, landholders and stakeholders, and the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust itself. As directors, the members of the Board also have general statutory duties of loyalty and good faith, and of care and diligence.

For these reasons, the 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 organisation.

Among other things, the framework requires us 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 NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust's fund and investment management will be disclosed in our annual reports.

Key publications 

  • Biodiversity Conservation Investment Strategy (BCIS) 2018
    The Minister for the Environment has made the Biodiversity Conservation Investment Strategy. We are 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. 
  • 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 NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust  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.