Australia’s Nature Repair Market is now operating, but it remains at an early stage. The latest Biodiversity Market Register available on July 16, 2026 listed two registered restoration projects in New South Wales, covering nearly 460 hectares in total, and no biodiversity certificates had yet been issued. The voluntary national scheme is established under the Nature Repair Act 2023.
The market grew from a 2023 parliamentary agreement between the Labor government and the Australian Greens. That deal helped pass the Nature Repair legislation, added an initial prohibition on using biodiversity certificates as environmental offsets, and accelerated an expansion of the federal “water trigger” to unconventional gas developments. The offset prohibition was later replaced by a conditional, method-based pathway in environmental law reforms passed in November 2025.
Last verified: July 16, 2026. The market’s methods, environmental-offset rules and project register are still developing, so time-sensitive details should be checked against the linked government sources.
Key takeaways
- The Nature Repair Market is voluntary. Eligible proponents can register projects that follow an approved method and seek a tradable biodiversity certificate when the stated outcome has been, or is likely to be, achieved.
- The Clean Energy Regulator issues one digital certificate per project. A certificate represents that project’s specific biodiversity outcome; it is not a standard unit repeated for every hectare, tree or species.
- Only one project method is currently available. It covers replanting locally native forest and woodland ecosystems on eligible, previously cleared land.
- The market has two registered projects and no issued certificates in the latest public register. Both projects are in New South Wales and are also associated with Australian Carbon Credit Unit projects on the same land.
- Certificates are not automatically environmental offsets. Under the 2025 reforms, offset use is possible only where the relevant method allows it and the certificate meets additional legal and market requirements.
- The expanded water trigger is a separate legal reform. It brings shale, tight and other unconventional gas developments into federal assessment where an action is likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.
What is Australia’s Nature Repair Market?
The Nature Repair Market is a legislated national framework for financing measurable biodiversity improvements and protection in Australia. It is intended to connect landholders and project proponents with businesses, governments, philanthropic organisations and other investors that want to fund nature restoration.
Participation is voluntary, but projects must comply with the Act, the Nature Repair Rules, an approved methodology determination and the biodiversity integrity standards. Those standards require outcomes to be additional, locally appropriate, measurable, assessable and verifiable. Projects must also avoid adverse biodiversity impacts.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water develops policy and methods with advice from the independent Nature Repair Committee. The Clean Energy Regulator administers project registration, certificates, reporting, audits, compliance and the public register.
This division of responsibilities matters. The certificate does not simply declare that an activity is “green.” It is tied to a registered project, a defined starting condition, an approved method, a project plan, monitoring information and a stated biodiversity outcome. Buyers can use the public register to examine those characteristics before deciding what the certificate is worth to them.
How the 2023 Labor–Greens agreement changed the legislation
The Nature Repair Bill was introduced in March 2023. It passed the Senate with amendments on December 5, the House agreed to those amendments on December 7, and the Act received assent on December 14. It came into effect on December 15, 2023.
The final passage reflected a legislative compromise. The government secured passage of its national biodiversity-market framework. The Greens secured an initial prohibition on using Nature Repair certificates as environmental offsets and the rapid expansion of the water trigger to cover all forms of unconventional gas development, including shale gas.
| Issue | Position after the 2023 agreement | Status in July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Nature Repair Market | A voluntary national biodiversity market was established in legislation. | The market is operating under one available method, with two registered projects. |
| Environmental offsets | Biodiversity certificates were prohibited from being used for an environmental-offsetting purpose. | The blanket prohibition has been repealed. A certificate can be used as an offset only if the applicable method permits it and all additional requirements are met. |
| Water trigger | The federal trigger was expanded beyond coal seam gas to all unconventional gas developments. | The expanded trigger applies where a relevant action is likely to have a significant impact on a water resource. |
| Market activity | No project method or registered project was yet available. | Two projects are registered; the latest register lists no issued biodiversity certificates. |
Supporters viewed the market as a way to attract private finance to restoration and reward land managers for measurable outcomes. Critics and parliamentary submitters raised questions about integrity, market demand, sequencing with broader environmental law reform, First Nations participation and the risk that offsets could enable damage in one place to be justified by restoration elsewhere. Those concerns remain relevant because a market should be judged by ecological outcomes and transparent claims, not merely by the number or value of certificates traded.
How biodiversity certificates work
A biodiversity certificate is a digital asset representing the verified biodiversity outcome of one registered project. The Clean Energy Regulator can issue only one certificate for each project. The certificate may be held, sold to a private buyer or deposited with the regulator to show an ongoing commitment to the project. It is cancelled when the project’s permanence period ends.
The project-to-certificate process
- Choose an approved method. A method defines eligible land, permitted activities, measurement rules, monitoring, reporting and the threshold for certificate issuance.
- Confirm eligibility and legal rights. The project must be in Australia, must not be legally required, must not be excluded by the rules and must have the necessary land rights or consents.
- Register as a participant and register the project. The proposed proponent must satisfy fit-and-proper-person requirements and accept legal responsibility for the project.
- Document the starting condition and project plan. The plan defines the intended biodiversity outcome, reference ecosystem, activities, risks, monitoring approach and permanence period.
- Carry out and maintain the work. The proponent must follow the method, manage threats and notify the regulator about relevant changes or significant reversals.
- Report and obtain required assurance. Reports are required at least every five years. Projects under the current replanting method also require an audit with the certificate application.
- Apply for the certificate. An application can be made when the project has progressed enough that the biodiversity outcome has been, or is likely to be, achieved and the method’s condition thresholds are met.
Because each certificate is project-specific, two certificates may represent very different ecosystems, locations, sizes, threatened-species benefits, permanence obligations and levels of ecological improvement. This makes due diligence essential. A buyer should examine the project plan, starting condition, monitoring reports, audit information, ownership history and any claim that the purchase is intended to support.
Who can participate?
Eligible proponents can include individuals, sole traders, companies, trusts and local, state or territory government bodies. Landholders, farmers, First Nations people and organisations, conservation groups and specialist project developers may all participate, provided the proponent and project meet the legal requirements.
The proponent is responsible for carrying out the project, receives the certificate and remains legally responsible for compliance. A landholder can appoint a third party to help design or run the project, but the allocation of rights, costs, certificate ownership and long-term obligations should be settled in clear agreements before registration.
Permanence, reporting and reversals
Projects must have a permanence period. Type A projects run for 25 years from registration, Type B projects run for 100 years, and Type C projects run for a method-specific period. A longer commitment can support durable outcomes, but it also creates long-term land-management obligations that may affect future owners and land-use choices.
Reporting continues whether or not a certificate has been issued. The regulator requires project reports at least every five years, while the method can impose additional monitoring and audit requirements. Fire, drought, flood, disease, illegal clearing or another event that significantly reverses the outcome may trigger notification, remedial work or other statutory consequences. A certificate therefore records a regulated commitment; it does not remove ecological risk.
What kinds of nature-repair projects currently qualify?
Eligibility depends on an approved method, not simply on whether an activity appears environmentally beneficial. As of July 2026, the only available method is the Replanting Native Forest and Woodland Ecosystems Method.
The method supports restoration on eligible land in modified landscapes that has been comprehensively cleared and does not currently have native forest cover. Planting must use species native to the local area and reflect a reference ecosystem. The design must include an appropriate combination of canopy, mid-storey and ground-layer species capable of developing forest cover within 25 years.
That ecological structure is important. A plantation of one commercially useful tree species is not equivalent to restoring the layers, plant diversity and ecological functions associated with native forest or woodland. The method is designed around a reference ecosystem and the habitat conditions that support different plant and animal communities.
- Land must fall within an eligible Australian biogeographic subregion.
- The project must define a measurable biodiversity outcome and starting condition.
- A suitably qualified ecologist, botanist or equivalent professional is required for field assessment, ecosystem evaluation, planning and monitoring.
- Plantings must be maintained for the permanence period, including remedial planting where necessary.
- Threats such as livestock grazing, pest pressure and inappropriate fire must be managed under the method.
- Activities such as unauthorised biomass removal, rubbish disposal and unnecessary soil or rock disturbance are restricted.
More methods are being developed. The proposed Enhancing Native Vegetation method is intended for areas that already contain native vegetation, while a proposed Protect and Conserve method is intended to support long-term protection and conservation. Until a method is formally made, however, projects cannot register under it.
What has happened in the market so far?
The market has moved beyond legislation and consultation, but its public project pipeline is still small. The official register last updated on May 28, 2026 listed the following two projects:
| Project | Location and scale | Intended outcome | Register status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silva Capital Cooplacurripa Biodiversity Project No. 1 | 438.54 hectares on Biripi/Birpai Country, west of Taree in New South Wales | Replant locally native forest and woodland vegetation on previously cleared land, reconnect habitat and improve landscape resilience | Registered August 12, 2025; certificate not issued |
| Karinya Downs Wet Sclerophyll Forest and Rainforest Restoration | 19.9 hectares near Doon Doon, southwest of Murwillumbah in the New South Wales Northern Rivers | Restore rainforest vegetation on a cattle property, including steep slopes and areas around creeks and gullies | Registered May 27, 2026; certificate not issued |
Together, the projects cover about 458 hectares. Both are designed to operate alongside registered Australian Carbon Credit Unit projects on the same land, an arrangement known as project stacking. The biodiversity project and carbon project must independently meet the rules of their respective schemes.
Stacking can improve project economics by recognising different outcomes from the same restoration work: carbon sequestration under the ACCU Scheme and project-specific biodiversity improvement under the Nature Repair Market. It can also complicate claims. Buyers and proponents should clearly distinguish which outcome is represented by an ACCU, which is represented by a biodiversity certificate, and which project costs or activities underpin each claim.
The absence of issued certificates means the public register does not yet show an operating secondary market or a reliable price benchmark. Project size alone will not determine value because biodiversity outcomes differ by ecosystem, condition, location, connectivity, threatened-species relevance, permanence and buyer objectives.
Can Nature Repair certificates be used as environmental offsets?
Potentially, but not automatically. The 2023 legislation initially prohibited a biodiversity certificate from being used for an environmental-offsetting purpose. Environmental reforms passed on November 28, 2025 repealed that blanket prohibition and allow each Nature Repair method to specify whether certificates created under that method may be used as offsets.
Under the current framework, offset use is possible only when the method allows it, the certificate satisfies any additional requirements in the method or Nature Repair Rules, and the use complies with the relevant environmental law. The project proponent can also choose whether the certificate is available for offset use.
The government was still consulting on draft Nature Repair Amendment (Environmental Offsets and Market Integrity) Rules 2026 when this article was verified. The consultation deadline was July 29, 2026. This means the existence of a tradable certificate should not be interpreted as proof that it is legally eligible to satisfy an offset obligation.
Why the offset distinction matters
A voluntary nature investment funds an improvement without being used to compensate for a separately approved environmental loss. An offset is connected to damage from another action and is intended to satisfy a legal approval condition. The same restoration project may be valuable in either context, but the claim, legal test and ecological burden are different.
Biodiversity is also difficult to treat as interchangeable. Loss of an old-growth habitat, a breeding site, a culturally significant place or a local population of a threatened species may not be replaced by planting a different ecosystem in another region. Effective offset rules therefore need a clear mitigation hierarchy: first avoid impacts, then minimise and restore on site, and use an offset only for eligible residual impacts under enforceable conditions.
Anyone evaluating an offset-capable certificate should check the affected protected matter, geographic and ecological equivalence, additionality, expected time lag, permanence, risk of reversal, monitoring, enforcement and whether the claimed outcome represents a genuine net improvement rather than a paper substitution.
What the expanded water trigger does
The water trigger is a matter of national environmental significance under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A person proposing a large coal mining development or unconventional gas development must refer the action for federal assessment when it has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.
Before the December 2023 amendment, the trigger covered large coal mining and coal seam gas developments. The amendment broadened the gas category to include unconventional gas extraction from sources such as shale and tight gas reservoirs. Conventional gas production is not captured solely because it is gas, although another protected matter under federal law may still require assessment.
The change is relevant to proposals in places such as the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Sub-basin, where shale gas development has prompted questions about groundwater and surface-water impacts. It also helps readers separate two issues that are often blurred: natural gas is a fossil fuel, but the statutory water trigger is specifically concerned with significant impacts on water resources. It is not, by itself, a general greenhouse-gas test or an automatic ban on a project.
Referral does not guarantee approval or refusal. It initiates the federal process for deciding whether assessment is required and, where necessary, what conditions or decision should follow. The environment minister must obtain relevant expert scientific advice for water-trigger decisions.
Potential benefits of the Nature Repair Market
A new financing route for restoration
Public conservation budgets cannot fund every restoration need. A regulated certificate can give private and philanthropic investors a clearer way to support projects with defined outcomes, while giving eligible land managers another potential revenue source. That revenue is not guaranteed: project development, planting, professional advice, monitoring, auditing and long-term maintenance can be costly, and certificate demand is still unproven.
More public information about projects
The public register can expose project plans, locations, intended outcomes, reports, audit information and certificate ownership to scrutiny. That is more useful than an unsupported corporate claim that money was spent “on nature.” Its value will depend on timely data, accessible ecological metrics and effective compliance when a project falls short.
Recognition of biodiversity alongside carbon
Carbon markets measure greenhouse-gas outcomes, not the full ecological quality of a landscape. A separate biodiversity framework can recognise local species composition, habitat structure, ecological connectivity and other outcomes that a carbon unit does not describe. Project stacking may make high-quality native restoration more financially feasible when both schemes’ additionality and accounting rules are satisfied.
Risks and unresolved questions
Additionality and baseline quality
A project should receive recognition only for an outcome that would not have occurred without it. Weak baselines can exaggerate improvement, while paying for activity already required by law would shift private money toward an existing obligation rather than create an additional benefit. Starting-condition assessments, method rules and independent assurance are therefore central to integrity.
Measurement and ecological comparability
Biodiversity cannot be reduced to one universal number without losing important context. A certificate needs enough project-level information for buyers and regulators to understand what changed, where it changed, how confidently it was measured and how long the outcome must last. Comparability can support decisions, but it should not imply that ecologically distinct places are interchangeable.
Permanence and climate risk
Twenty-five or 100 years is a long management period, but restored ecosystems may face worsening fire, drought, flood, invasive-species and disease risks. Good project design needs realistic buffers, maintenance funding, monitoring and reversal plans. A certificate issued early in a project’s development still depends on future management and ecological performance.
Market demand and price discovery
A certificate has no assured buyer or fixed government price. With no certificates listed as issued in the latest register, there is not yet enough transparent trading evidence to infer normal pricing, liquidity or transaction costs. Landholders should model the project on conservative demand assumptions rather than treat certificate revenue as certain.
First Nations rights, consent and knowledge
Many potential project areas intersect with First Nations rights, cultural values and ecological knowledge. The scheme enables Indigenous knowledge to inform project design, but that knowledge must remain guided by its owners. Engagement should begin early, respect local decision-making and address consent, cultural harm, data governance, attribution and benefit sharing. In some circumstances, engagement with relevant Indigenous representatives is mandatory.
Greenwashing and overstated buyer claims
Australian Consumer Law applies to environmental claims associated with certificates. Buying or funding one project does not automatically make an organisation “nature positive,” erase its wider footprint or prove that unrelated damage has been neutralised. Credible claims should identify the certificate, project, outcome, location, period and limits of the contribution without suggesting a broader result that the evidence cannot support.
What to watch next
- The first certificate: issuance would provide the first practical test of the threshold, audit process, certificate data and buyer interest.
- The Enhancing Native Vegetation method: statutory consultation opened on July 1, 2026, with release expected in late 2026. It would extend participation to eligible land that already contains native vegetation.
- The Protect and Conserve method: this proposed method is intended to support long-term protection and conservation, with release expected in early 2027.
- Final offset and integrity rules: these will determine how offset-capable projects are identified, assessed and represented in the market.
- Project performance data: restoration survival, ecosystem-condition changes, audits, reversals and enforcement will reveal more about integrity than registration totals alone.
- Buyer claims and demand: transparent transactions and precise public claims will be important for confidence in an emerging market.
The bottom line
Australia’s Nature Repair Market has progressed from a debated bill to an operating framework with two registered restoration projects. Its design includes approved methods, additionality requirements, public project information, monitoring, audits and long permanence obligations. Those safeguards create a stronger basis for nature-finance claims than unverified donations or generic sustainability labels.
The market is not yet mature. No certificate had been issued in the latest register, only one method was available, certificate demand and pricing remained uncertain, and the rules for environmental-offset use were still being completed. The 2023 claim that Nature Repair certificates can never be used as offsets is now outdated; the accurate position is that offset use is conditional and method-specific.
The central test is not how quickly the market grows. It is whether projects deliver additional, durable and verifiable ecological improvement while avoiding misleading claims and respecting the rights and knowledge of First Nations people. That matters because climate change and biodiversity loss reinforce each other, yet neither problem can be solved by certificates without effective regulation and on-ground work.
For a species-focused example of habitat advocacy in Australia, see how the Australian Koala Foundation works to protect koalas and their habitat.
Frequently asked questions
What is Australia’s Nature Repair Market?
It is a voluntary, legislated national biodiversity market. Eligible projects follow an approved method and may receive one tradable biodiversity certificate representing the project’s verified biodiversity outcome.
How many Nature Repair Market projects are registered?
The Biodiversity Market Register last updated on May 28, 2026 listed two registered projects, both in New South Wales.
Has Australia issued any biodiversity certificates?
No certificate was listed as issued in the latest public register available when this article was verified on July 16, 2026.
Can a Nature Repair certificate be used as an environmental offset?
Only conditionally. The relevant method must allow offset use, the certificate must satisfy additional method, rule and environmental-law requirements, and the proponent can choose whether the certificate is available for that purpose.
What is the water trigger in Australian environmental law?
It is an EPBC Act trigger for large coal mining and unconventional gas actions that have, will have or are likely to have a significant impact on a water resource. It can require federal referral, assessment and approval.
Who can participate in the Nature Repair Market?
Eligible landholders, farmers, First Nations people and organisations, conservation groups, companies, trusts, governments and other proponents can participate if they have the necessary rights or consents and meet the scheme and method requirements.