Nature repair market - exposure draft of legislation - consultation extended until Friday 3 March 2023

We are developing a nature repair market to encourage investment in biodiversity and drive environmental improvements across Australia.

Companies are looking at ways to achieve positive outcomes for nature through their investments but a national framework to facilitate that investment is not yet in place.

The market will be underpinned by legislation – the Nature Repair Market Bill (the Bill). This will enable landholders who protect, manage or restore local habitat and to receive biodiversity certificates which can then be sold to other parties. It will ensure the integrity of biodiversity certificates so the market can invest with confidence.

A wide range of projects will be possible under the scheme, such as:

  • improving or restoring existing native vegetation by activities such as fencing or weeding

  • planting a mix of local species on a previously cleared area

  • protecting rare grasslands that provide habitat for an endangered species.

The market will operate in parallel with the existing carbon market. This will encourage projects with carbon sequestration and biodiversity outcomes.

We are now seeking feedback on the draft Bill. We recommend that you refer to the Bill for details when developing your feedback.

Help us make it effective

The exposure draft legislation will operate as a framework. It will establish governance systems, high integrity methods for undertaking projects, transparency in the market and compliance arrangements for projects. We want your feedback to ensure the Bill has the right scope.

Your feedback will help ensure the nature repair market is appropriately designed and that the framework will support its growth and evolution.

This is the second round of consultation. We consulted in September 2022 through a Have Your Say process and targeted discussions. Your feedback helped us understand the various views about the core elements of the proposed market framework. We were then able to develop the exposure draft of the Bill.

Further consultation in 2023 will work through the details of how the scheme will operate. This will include the rules and methods for developing the market. It will also consider how people can participate in the market.

Consultation documents

Fact sheets

Submissions to the Nature Repair Market Exposure Draft

Public consultation on the exposure draft of the Nature Repair Market Bill was open from 23 December 2022 – 3 March 2023. A total of 182 submissions were received.

Read published submissions.

Timeline

  • Opened
    closed
    22 December 2022
  • Closed
    closed
    3 March 2023
Contact
Biodiversity Market team
naturerepairmarket@dcceew.gov.au