Environmental Justice Australia made a submission to the federal department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on its proposal to create a national biodiversity market.
The federal government intends the biodiversity market to increase investment in conservation by landowners and other groups. The government says it would create a system which rewarded landowners for actions which had some environmental benefits by issuing certificates that can be sold on the private market to companies.
EJA raised concerns in our submission, including the importance for significant reform of our federal environmental law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, to come before creating this mechanism. EJA also submitted the biodiversity market must also be carefully designed to ensure it doesn’t enable the destruction of biodiversity.