Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed Nature Repair Market Bill 2023 (the Bill).
EDO strongly supports investment in restoration and conservation management and for funding to go to landholders across Australia for biodiversity stewardship.
The focus of any scheme established to galvanise investment in restoration and nature repair must be achievement of environmental outcomes. Objectives, principles, governance, rules, methodologies, monitoring, compliance and enforcement, transparency and accountability measures must all be designed to ensure that real environmental outcomes are being achieved on the ground.
Key issues identified in this submission relate to:
• The use of the proposed market for biodiversity offsets
• The timing and sequencing of this Bill in the context of EPBC Act reform
• Ensuring integrity and longevity in environmental outcomes
• The use of the proposed market for biodiversity offsets
• The objectives of the scheme
• Administration of the nature repair market framework and governance by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER)
• Implementation and content of the integrity standards
• Accountability and transparency
• Compliance and enforcement
