Under the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme, the price of biodiversity credits is negotiated between buyers and sellers. The government does not set the price of credits.
However, the price must cover the relevant proportion of the Total Fund Deposit calculated when creating the credits.
Buyers and sellers of credits are encouraged to seek independent advice about the fair price of credits.
Ways to estimate biodiversity credit prices
There are 2 main ways to estimate the fair price of biodiversity credits:
Use market information, including:
- historical trading information to identify sales of credits that are the same as or similar to those being priced
- information about actual and potential demand and supply of the biodiversity credits that are being priced to identify the scarcity of those credits.
Use information about the cost of supplying credits, including:
- the costs associated with establishing a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement (for example, legal and tax advisory, business planning, biodiversity assessment costs)
- the ‘opportunity cost’ of using land under a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement
- the costs of managing the land on which the credits are generated in perpetuity (known as Total Fund Deposit amount)
- administrative fees (for example, application fees to enter a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement and transfer credits)
- holding and transaction costs (for example, the costs of identifying a buyer or seller for credits).
Learn more in the
Information to help estimate credit prices
Note: These resources are for guidance only. They are not financial advice. Prices for biodiversity credits being bought or sold are the responsibility of the buyer and seller. Buyers and sellers should consider obtaining their own expert advice about credit prices.
A range of information is available to help buyers and sellers estimate the price of credits. This includes:
- the Biodiversity Credits Pricing Guide, which describes the main ways of estimating the price of biodiversity credits.
- historical sales data available in the:
- Biodiversity Conservation Fund Charge System data, including data in the Guide to typical Total Fund Deposit amounts per hectare, and the Guide to typical Credit Yield per hectare on the Biodiversity Conservation Charge Fund System page.
The Biodiversity Conservation Trust also provides a fee-for-service Biodiversity credits price estimation service. It provides an estimate of what the Biodiversity Conservation Trust would expect to pay for credits, based on the estimated costs of supplying credits.
A summary of publicly available information about biodiversity credits supply, demand and pricing is available in Summary tables of biodiversity credit market information.