Niche’s biodiversity ‘matchmaking’ platform helping to sell 1 million credits

Developers seeking biodiversity credits for their projects can find their perfect match on the Niche Biodiversity Offset Exchange (BOE) platform, now with more than 1 million biodiversity credits available on the largest register of its kind in Australia.

Developed by leading biodiversity consultancy Niche, the BOE platform connects landholders, project developers and investors, playing a vital role in both development and conservation by enabling projects to fund high-integrity nature outcomes.

The platform acts as a ‘matchmaker’— drawing on data from public and proprietary sources and applying a unique credit matching algorithm to rapidly find the best biodiversity credit matches for a project.

The platform recently hit the milestone of listing over 1 million credits — estimated to be worth over $1.3 billion — which represents hundreds of thousands of hectares of land which is either being conserved or ready to be conserved in perpetuity to protect a wide range of Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems.

Ian Rollins, Managing Director of Niche, said the platform is supporting Australia’s fast-growing biodiversity credit market.

“This is a pivotal moment for scaling nature markets in Australia. Having a platform that streamlines a complex market and enables more efficient trading of over a million credits is essential to drive investment in conservation while supporting critical infrastructure projects,” Mr Rollins said.

“Our platform is also helping to channel much-needed investment into conservation. By making it easier for buyers to source the credits they need, we can unlock this $1.3 billion of funding for nature and deliver genuine, positive impacts on the ground. This is conservation that would not be happening at all without a robust and accessible biodiversity market, so it is extremely critical to Australia’s efforts to stem the biodiversity crisis,” Mr Rollins said.

Matthew Richardson, Ecologist, Offset Strategist and Founding Director at Niche, said innovation had always been at the core of the company. Known for collaborating with some of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects to deliver the best outcomes for both nature and development, Niche’s philosophy has always been to combine science, technology, strategy and environmental expertise to solve complex problems for clients.

“This philosophy led to the development of the Niche BOE platform,” said Mr Richardson said.

“We could see clients working on important projects and struggling to find the specific biodiversity credits they needed to meet their regulatory requirements. The result was frustration, uncertainty and delays that added risk and cost to projects. We could also see the landholders who wanted to start conservation activities on their property but needed funding from credit sales to take actions such as pest control, fencing or revegetation to protect threatened species and ecosystems.”

“The Niche BOE platform represents a significant step forward for biodiversity markets—solving the complex problem of matching buyers and sellers to drive better outcomes for developers, landholders and nature.”

For example, BOE recently supported a renewable energy developer in NSW to match with two prospective biodiversity projects for their credits, enabling the landholders to proceed with developing their offset sites and immediately conserving an area of over 2,500 hectares.

Biodiversity credits are generated under the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme (BOS) and emerging frameworks such as the Nature Repair Market and Accounting for Nature, enabling industry to meet environmental compliance obligations or achieve voluntary sustainability goals through funding measurable gains for nature.

The Niche BOE platform has grown rapidly since its inception , reflecting strong demand from developers, investors and landholders seeking both environmental and financial returns.

Niche is a leader in nature markets in Australia, responsible for establishing over 40 biodiversity projects, including the first Biodiversity Stewardship Site under the NSW BOS, and supporting the first Nature Repair Market project which was registered earlier this year.

With its track record of combining ecological expertise, innovative technology and market insight, Niche is helping to shape the future of nature markets in Australia — creating solutions that deliver certainty for business, investment for landholders, and positive outcomes for the environment.

Further information

The over 1 million credits listed in the Niche BOE platform include all BioBanking and Biodiversity Credits listed on the NSW Government supply registers plus potential credit-generating sites in Niche’s landholder portfolio.

The value of $1.3 billion for these credits is calculated based on the average cost per credit of $1,397 derived from the NSW Government data of historic biodiversity credit sales.

Read more about BOE here

Contact
Carly Youd
Head of Brand, Marketing and Communications
Niche Environment and Heritage
Phone: 0409 675 019
Email: cyoud@niche-eh.com

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