Biodiversity Conservation Regulation 2017

This clause relates to the offset rules that apply to the determination under the biodiversity offsets scheme of the biodiversity conservation measures to offset or compensate for the impacts on biodiversity values after the steps taken to avoid or minimise those impacts, being measures required by the conditions of the relevant planning approval, vegetation clearing approval or biodiversity certification of land.

The measures to offset or compensate for those impacts are (subject to the Act and any other applicable Act) any one or a combination of the following options—

the retirement of the required number and class of like-for-like biodiversity credits,

for the Biodiversity Conservation Trust—the retirement of the required biodiversity credits in accordance with the variation rules,

the funding of a biodiversity conservation action that would benefit the relevant threatened species or ecological community and that is equivalent to the cost of acquiring the required like-for-like biodiversity credits as determined by the offsets payment calculator referred to in section 6.32 of the Act,

in the case of State significant development or infrastructure under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 that is mining under a mining lease—an obligation to undertake ecological rehabilitation of the impacted site that has the same credit value (determined in accordance with the ancillary rules) as the retirement of like-for-like biodiversity credits,

the payment under section 6.30 of the Act of an amount into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund determined in accordance with the offsets payment calculator to satisfy the requirement to retire biodiversity credits,

for major project development—entering into an agreement requiring the applicant or proponent of the development to fund actions that benefit biodiversity values to be carried out by the Environment Agency Head (a strategic offset delivery agreement), whether in relation to the development generally or each stage of the development.

In the case of a combination of the above options, the required number of credits to be retired or the required amount of funding or other obligations is the requisite proportion in respect of each such option.

The biodiversity conservation actions that qualify as biodiversity conservation measures under the offset rules are the actions for which provision is made in the ancillary rules under clause 6.5.

When conferring biodiversity certification on land under Part 8 of the Act, the determination of conservation measures that adequately address the impacts on biodiversity values is subject to the following—

the conservation measures are the approved conservation measures referred to in section 8.3 of the Act,

the offset rules do not apply to biodiversity certification conferred as a result of a strategic application for biodiversity certification,

the offset rules apply to biodiversity certification conferred as a result of an application that is not a strategic application for biodiversity certification (except that the funding of a biodiversity conservation action is not an available measure).

In this clause—

a priority transmission infrastructure project or REZ network infrastructure project within the meaning of the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2020, or

generation, storage, network or related infrastructure in a renewable energy zone within the meaning of the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2020, or

infrastructure to which an LTES agreement within the meaning of the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2020 applies.

To avoid doubt, for subclause (6), State significant development or infrastructure is major project development even if part of the project is outside the REZ concerned.