Appin West BioBank Site.

The project

Niche was commissioned by South32 Illawarra Metallurgical Coal to undertake a multi-stage project to establish the Appin West BioBank Site, under the NSW Government’s Biodiversity Banking and Offsets Scheme (BioBanking).

The BioBanking scheme was designed to address the loss of biodiversity values, including threatened species, from habitat degradation and loss. BioBanking is a market-based scheme which provides an opportunity for private and commercial landowners to generate income by managing land for conservation and generating ‘credits’ which can be sold either to offset impacts on biodiversity from development, or to those seeking to invest in conservation.

The establishment of the Appin West BioBank Site is an excellent result for South32 IMC and for conservation.

The Appin West BioBank site at Wilton is an 85 hectare property owned by South32 IMC. The property includes over 60 hectares of native vegetation classified as Shale Sandstone Transition Forest, which is listed as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community.

Our role in the project

Niche’s team of Accredited BioBanking assessors and ecological consultants developed and implemented a project plan for South32 IMC to ensure that their application to establish a BioBank site fully satisfied the requirements of the NSW BioBanking Scheme.

The Appin West BioBank Site project included four key stages:

• Field surveys – including targeted surveys for Cumberland Plain Land Snail, a species with the potential to generate species credits
• Expert reports – for threatened Koala, which had been recorded at the site in recent years and can generate species credits
• BioBanking credit calculations, assessment report and mapping – in accordance with the requirements of the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 standards
• Management Plan and submission of the final BioBanking Application