Biodiversity Offsets
In Victoria, biodiversity offsets are saleable credits used to compensate for the permitted clearance of native vegetation and threatened species habitat under the Victorian Government’s Planning and Environment Act 1987 and Guidelines for the removal, destruction or lopping of native vegetation (the ‘Guidelines’) (DELWP 2017), and the Australian Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act).
Landowners can generate offset credits through protecting and enhancing existing native vegetation with an on-title agreement and management commitments. Revegetation with native plants may also generate credits at the appropriate scales. |
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Under Victoria’s Guidelines, offsets are measured in General or Species Habitat Units (HUs). HUs are a measure of native vegetation extent and condition, and modelled scores for biodiversity or threatened species habitat. General HUs reflect the contribution a site makes to biodiversity in Victoria and Species HUs reflect the contribution a site makes to the persistence of threatened flora and fauna species (eg. Slender Bindweed Convolvulus angustissimus subsp. omnigracilis, Leadbeater’s Possum Gymnobelideus leadbeateri).
| Under the Australian Government’s EPBC Act, environmental offsets are sold in hectares (ha), with respect to the vegetation condition at the offset site, and/or the habitat requirements of the relevant threatened species and ecological communities. Each offset must be negotiated with the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. EPBC Act listed flora and fauna species, and ecological communities, include Spiny Rice-flower Pimelea spinescens subsp. spinescens, Large-fruit Fireweed Senecio macrocarpus, Golden Sun-moth Synemon plana, Striped Legless Lizard Delma impar, Natural Temperate Grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plain and Grassy Eucalypt Woodland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain. |
Further information on biodiversity offsets in Victoria can be found on our 'Resources' page, or contact us today to discuss your project.