Environmental Defenders Office welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Inquiry into the integrity of the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme (BOS).
EDO is a national community legal centre specialising in public interest environmental law. We have a long history of providing legal advice on biodiversity and conservation matters, including on the use of biodiversity offsets in NSW.
We were a key stakeholder engaged in the biodiversity conservation and land management reforms that led to the introduction of the BOS under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and have continued to engage in the implementation of the BOS. We have ongoing concerns about the use of biodiversity offsets in NSW and the effectiveness of the scheme to halt or reverse the loss of biodiversity values.
