This biodiversity benefits toolkit has been developed for the New South Wales Environmental Services Scheme to assist landowners in assessing the benefits to biodiversity that are likely to result from a change in the way they use their land.
The Toolkit is a product of collaboration between key government departments and stakeholders in NSW and Victoria including DIPNR, DEC and DPI (Forests NSW). It has been designed to: 1) Score the current biodiversity value of a site 2) Estimate the magnitude and direction of change in biodiversity value resulting from land use change 3) Incorporate these current and potential values into a Biodiversity Benefits Index.
The toolkit is unique in that it has been designed to cover a wide range of alternative vegetation options, including commercial and environmental native tree plantings as well as other typical land use changes on farmland