Australia: New South Wales Announces its First Official BioBank

Becca Madsen on June 2, 2010 Comment

If you've heard of the 'BioBanking' scheme in New South Wales (NSW), it may surprise you to know that it has been in pilot phase up until the fall of 2009, and it has only just now announced its first official BioBank. If you're not familiar with the BioBanking system, here's a quick description (from NSW's press release):

"BioBanking is an initiative which seeks to address the decline of biodiversity and threatened plants and animals on private land by giving them an economic value through the creation of biodiversity credits. These credits can then be sold on an open market"

NSW's Minister for Climate Change and the Environment Frank Sartor announced that the Department had signed its first official BioBanking agreement on an 80-hectare property near Camden in Western Sydney. The property, owned by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, includes 36 hectares of critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland, and habitat for 17 threatened species such as the Large-eared Pied Bat, Little Lorikeet and Cumberland Land Snail. Buyers have apparently already been secured, with the Sydney Growth Centres Biodiversity Offset Program purchasing two-thirds of the credits now (607 ecosystem credits), and the remainder in August. The Growth Centres funnels levies from developers in southwest and northwest Sydney. The Epoch Times reports that the purchase of credits will offset planned development of 180,000 additional houses over the next 40 years.

Of the AUD$1.7 million paid by the Growth Centres in its current purchase, $1.1 million was paid to the landowner and over $555,000 went into the BioBanking Trust Fund, to be distributed in annual payments to the landowner for management costs (removal of existing rubbish, installation of new fences, ongoing weed and feral animal control and revegetation of previously grazed land).

Although this is the first official BioBank, another 37 'expressions of interest' have been received by NSW's DECCW and applications for 5 sites (200 ha) are currently being assessed.

Not everyone is a fan of BioBanking. The Sydney Morning Herald The Sydney Morning Heraldlaid out the pros and cons of the scheme...

Pros: "In its favour, there are limits on the process. The arrangement will be available for developments on land for which equivalents elsewhere can be found. Land of unique significance and value will still be subject to a conservation order. And though it ensures some land will be developed, it also ensures that other land, presumably of greater or equal value, is preserved."

Cons: "There are reasons to be dubious about the BioBank system. It involves a net loss of land of conservation value. It will ease the way for development on land which might otherwise have been preserved. And it co-opts the Department of the Environment into becoming part of the development approval process, possibly compromising its conservation role."

The Epoch Times reports that environmentalists are not happy with the scheme allowing the destruction of one area for a swap of protection of another area. Perhaps that is because of distrust of the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, who was involved in a development/land swap deal while in a former position in the NSW Planning Department that was later deemed illegal. ABC (Australia) has a short news video that nicely lays out the nuances and history of BioBanking and Mr. Sartor's tarnished reputation with "land bribes."

Sources

Sydney Morning Herald article

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/a-chance-on-the-ocean-wave-20100517-v95i.html

Epoch Times article

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/35753/

New South Wales Press Release

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/MinMedia/MinMedia10051701.pdf

StreetCorner.com.au article

http://www.streetcorner.com.au/news/showPost.cfm?bid=14528&mycomm=WC

ABC.net.au

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/05/21/2906460.htm?site=centralcoast