As a self-funded entity, the Office of Strategic Lands uses the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme to help generate revenue to finance land management and future land acquisition to help improve livability in Western Sydney.
Since 2017, the Office of Strategic Lands has established 5 biodiversity stewardship sites protected in perpetuity. The Office of Strategic Lands identified these sites as open spaces with good biodiversity values.
Selling the credits that have been created from these sites will fund maintenance to enhance biodiversity and help fund further land acquisition for open space. The credits may be sold to developers or government infrastructure proponents seeking to offset impacts.
The Office of Strategic Lands hopes the scheme will help provide a long-term, viable and sustainable funding model to facilitate its ongoing work and benefit local communities with more green space.
It recommends other public landholders who are interested in securing funding for land management that they plan well with the input of an accredited assessor, consider the best use of the land, taking into account community and government objectives, and consider practical arrangements such as who will undertake on-ground land management in the future.
A spokesperson for the Office of Strategic Lands says that she is excited to have successfully established the stewardship sites. There is an opportunity to generate revenue by managing land for conservation.
