Biodiversity Credits Demand and Supply Dashboard – Frequently asked questions

The dashboard provides a broad overview of demand from approved Major Projects and supply from approved Biodiversity Stewardship Agreements, excluding credits already retired. It is an interactive tool that allows users to search for ecosystem and species credit demand and supply information in one location. The dashboard information may support public awareness of credit obligation requirements and provide insights to credit market supply and demand.

If you are considering entering into a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement, you can use the dashboard to gain a broad overview of the existing supply of and demand for biodiversity credits that might be relevant to your Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement proposal. This can help you understand if there may be people who are willing to buy your credits.

You should always seek advice from an accredited assessor about the number and type of biodiversity credits that could be generated by establishing a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement. You should also seek independent advice on the feasibility of the proposal.

If you own biodiversity credits, the dashboard can help you understand the existing demand for your credits and the existing supply of these credits. This may help you make decisions about selling and pricing your credits.

You should treat this information as indicative as demand and supply information is constantly changing. Carefully consider the limitations and caveats of the dashboard information as outlined in the user guide.

You should also consider the offset rules when interpreting the supply and demand information.

Consideration of credit availability in the market early in the development process may support more efficient processes for meeting obligations later on, for example, if supply of the credits you will likely require is low, you might consider getting in touch with sellers early, listing 'credits wanted' on the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme credit demand register, registering a credit demand expression of interest with the Credits Supply Fund and/or investigating the feasibility of entering your own Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement. 

If you have a credit obligation, you can use the dashboard to gain a broad overview of the supply and demand of the relevant biodiversity credits. 

You should treat this information as indicative as demand and supply information is constantly changing. Carefully consider the limitations and caveats of the dashboard information in the user guide. 

You should also consider the offset rules when interpreting the supply and demand information.

• Offset rules
• Credit demand register
• Credit demand expression of interest with the Credits Supply Fund

The dashboard presents a broad overview of demand from unretired credit obligations (major projects) against supply.

The limitations should be considered carefully when using the dashboard information. 

Unretired credit obligations are a strong but not perfect indicator of existing demand. 

Demand information in the dashboard may not reflect actual market activity because: 

• proponents/landholders may have privately committed to trading credits 
• proponents may intend to set up their own Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement 
• credit obligations may be altered post-approval 
• variation offset rules may be applied 
• proponents may delay meeting their credit obligations in accordance with approved development stages or due to unforeseen circumstances 
• proponents may decide not to develop the site 
• BioBanking Assessment Methodology credits and obligations are not yet accounted for in the dashboard (see tab 'Can BioBanking Assessment Methodology credits be used to offset Biodiversity Assessment Method obligations and visa-versa?' in the user guide)
• information is not updated in real-time 
• demand and supply information may be subject to transcription error.

The dashboard does not include demand from either:

• approved local Part 4 development 
• Part 5 authority approvals 
• clearing approvals under other legislation such as the Local Land Service Act 2013 
• conferrals of biodiversity certification. 

Demand information is not included if approval conditions are unclear or credit obligations change outside of approval conditions. 

Similarly, the pipeline of demand from projects that have not yet been approved is not presented in the dashboard. Ecosystem credits presented do not indicate hollow-bearing tree status.

Check the 'last updated' dates in the dashboard to see the currency of credit demand and supply information.

For ecosystem credits: Use the Ecosystem Credit Trading Groups tool to identify the like-for-like offset trading group credit retirement options (excluding hollow-bearing tree (HBT) requirements) and refer to the like-for-like offset rules to identify all relevant Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) subregions.

Then, search for these in the dashboard. For more information, see the dashboard user guide or the Ecosystem Credit Trading Groups tool.