National Stewardship Trading Platform

About the Platform

In 2020, the Australian Government commissioned Frontier Economics to complete a scoping study on the potential for a national biodiversity trading platform. The study found that while there is growing interest in biodiversity services from voluntary corporate and philanthropic buyers, the current market is complex and hard to navigate for both buyers and sellers. There is a lack of standard, credible, transparent information, and transaction costs are high.

The study suggested a national biodiversity trading platform could provide information that would make it easier for potential market participants, including farmers, to navigate the market. It could reduce search and marketing costs by bringing opportunities together in one place.

In the 2021-22 budget the Australian Government provided $4.4 million for the development of a trading platform for biodiversity. In response the Australian Government has developed the National Stewardship Trading Platform. The National Stewardship Trading Platform aims to:

• help farmers monetise the biodiversity services they provide by enabling them to connect with buyers,
• help corporate and/or philanthropic organisations to voluntarily buy biodiversity services to support their organisational goals, and
• kick-start private sector biodiversity markets by building transparency and credibility in the market.

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How it works

The Australian Government have partnered with an Australian National University led consortium to develop the National Stewardship Trading Platform. The National Stewardship Trading platform builds off the success of the Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot and Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot application portals.

The National Stewardship Trading Platform has 2 key components:

1. Bulletin board
   • Projects are listed so buyers (private sector) and sellers (farmers) can find each other.
   • Project listings include spatial maps, descriptions and expression of interest periods.
   • Trades are executed off the platform.
2. Project planning tool
   • Farmers can use spatial information to plan projects (e.g. map project area), estimate carbon abatement, and identify high value environmental assets on their properties.
   • Farmers can test eligibility for funding opportunities such as the Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot or Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot and submit applications.

The National Stewardship Trading Platform integrates existing spatial and environmental data sets to provide market information to buyers and sellers.

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Enquiries about the program can be directed to agstewardship@awe.gov.au. You can also call us on 1800 329 055.