Based on over 20 years’ experience in biodiversity management in NSW, Niche experts conclude the NSW BOS offers a firm foundation for biodiversity conservation. There are opportunities to improve, but no need for wholesale change.
Biodiversity offsets aim to deliver beneficial and sustainable environmental outcomes and are an integral component of most project approvals in Australia.
How do we meet the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change, protecting biodiversity and improving the management of natural capital?
If you are familiar with the Triple Bottom Line (3 P’s, Profit, People, Planet), you will likely know there is no specific guidelines to accurately measure TBL. A consistent and globally adopted framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks is required.
Last month, Niche attended and sponsored the EIANZ’s National Biodiversity Offsets Conference in Canberra. As market leaders in biodiversity offsetting in NSW, we were very proud to of been a part of this insightful and industry-leading event
At Niche, we care about sustaining our environment and to demonstrate our commitment we are continuing to minimise the impact of our operations through offsetting our carbon emissions. “By measuring our organisation’s carbon footprint annually, we are able to understand the sources of our carbon emissions and explore ways to reduce them… “We’ve reduced our…
Principal ecologist and biodiversity offsetting specialist Dr Amanda Griffith introduces the basics of biodiversity offsetting, and how it applies in NSW. Biodiversity offsets aim to deliver beneficial and sustainable environmental outcomes and are an integral component of most project approvals in Australia. In NSW, the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme (BOS) provides the framework for assessing impacts…
Cairo is a botanist and biodiversity offsetting specialist who has been part of Niche’s NSW ecology consulting team for more than three years. Before working as a consultant, Cairo spent 8 years in biological and ecological research within university and private institutions. “Having sampled both consulting and research roles, I found that there’s a wider…
Matthew Richardson, Niche director and botanist, provides an update on the review… Background The Commonwealth Minister for the Environment appointed Professor Graeme Samuel AC to conduct the Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) in October 2019. In June this year Professor Samuel delivered the interim report and its…
The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) have awarded Niche Environment and Heritage Pty Ltd (Niche) the Inland Rail NSW Biodiversity Offset Site Identification Program. The award of this multi-million dollar works package will result in the Niche biodiversity team working alongside ARTC’s team for several years to identify and assess sites across NSW that may…
In November last year, the NSW Government released the Spot Price Index1 for biodiversity credits created using the BioBanking Assessment Methodology under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act). Whilst this act has now been replaced by the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act) and the assessment of biodiversity offsets is now determined…
The NSW EPBC Act1 Bilateral Agreement was amended on March 24, 2020 (Amending Agreement No. 1) as a result of both the NSW and Australian Governments’ commitment to: Streamlining environmental assessments and offsets for projects in NSW and Reducing the regulatory burden on proponents of projects in NSW. The amendment has been anticipated for some…
The recent fires across NSW have created challenges for assessors quantifying the impacts of developments on burnt bushland and valuing potential Biodiversity Stewardship Sites. Ecologist and Accredited BAM Assessor Dr Cairo Forrest summarises key points from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE)’s recently released guidelines for applying the Biodiversity Assessment Methodology (BAM) at…