National Stewardship Trading Platform

The National Stewardship Trading Platform aims to:

• help landholders to get information about the attributes of their property and plan biodiversity projects
• help landholders to 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
• kick-start private sector biodiversity markets by building transparency and credibility in the market.

Plan and sell biodiversity outcomes

The National Stewardship Trading Platform is making it easier for farmers to plan and sell biodiversity and carbon outcomes in one place. The Platform has 2 key components:

• Marketplace
• Project planning tool

Marketplace

The Marketplace connects landholders and private buyers of biodiversity and carbon+ outcomes. Private buyers and landholders can create project listings that are publicly displayed on the marketplace.  Project listings include details about the environmental outcomes offered or sought. Registered users can search the marketplace and contact listing owners through the platform. Once connected, private buyers and landholders negotiate commercial arrangements directly.

Guidance on how to register an account and create a listing on Marketplace is available to download.

Project planning tool

The planning tool helps landholders plan and evaluate biodiversity and carbon projects through environmental data sets. Landholders can use the tool to map projects, estimate carbon abatement, and identify high value environmental assets on their properties.

Eligible landholders applied for Round 2 of the Carbon + Biodiversity pilot using the planning tool.

Frontier Economics Report

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.

Contact us

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