Box Gum Woodland conservation offer

Welcome and thank you for joining us today. I'm Marta Tomaszewski, Regional Team Leader with the BCT Central West and Western Region, and I'll be your presenter today. Today's session is an information briefing on the Box Gum Woodland
conservation offer. It's an opportunity to learn more about the program, but it's not a decision making forum.
I'll be covering who we are at the BCT, how the conservation offer works and its timeline, key eligibility criteria including the target box gum grassy woodlands, and how landholders can find out more and submit an expression of interest.
Just some housekeeping. Your audio and cameras are turned off for this presentation. You can ask questions at any time using Slido, and I'll address as many as possible at the end of the session during our Q&A.
The session is being recorded, so you'll be able to rewatch it later, and the presentation will run for about 60 minutes.
If you need to leave early or you have any specific questions later on, please email us at info@bct.nsw.gov.au and for more details or resources, they're available on our website at www.nsw.gov.au/bct-bgw.
All right, so we acknowledge the Traditional custodians of NSW and their ongoing connection to land, water, biodiversity and culture. And we pay our respects to Elders past, present and future and commit to genuine collaboration and partnership with Aboriginal people in private land conservation.
So going through the agenda, we'll talk about who we are at the BCT, why private land conservation and why it matters, and then the box gum woodland conservation offer itself. So this includes how will the offer work, eligibility criteria, the application process and key dates, price guide, important considerations for you to consider, questions from Slido and next steps.
So this screen here shows how to get access to Slido to post questions for the Q&A, you can either scan the QR code using your phone's camera and then tap the link that appears, or you can go to the website, which is www.slido.com and enter the participant code that you can see at the top right hand of the screen. So I'll just pause here for a bit so you have a chance to get logged in.
Right, so who are we? The Biodiversity Conservation Trust, known as BCT for short, is part of the NSW Government established in 2017 under the Biodiversity Conservation Act.
We are a not-for-profit statutory body and in our case this means we are a NSW Government body established by law to protect and enhance biodiversity across the state.
Our funds are managed in a dedicated trust to ensure long term security.
Our primary objective is to protect and improve biodiversity across the state with landholders, as mandated by legislation, and we achieve this by encouraging landholders to enter into conservation agreements to protect the natural environment, seeking strategic biodiversity offsets under the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme, providing mechanisms for achieving conservation of biodiversity and promoting public knowledge, appreciation, understanding of biodiversity and the importance of conserving biodiversity. Through our private land conservation programs, we help landholders protect, connect and restore biodiversity on private properties. Support can include annual payments, grants, conservation education and advice.
Beyond agreements, we also operate a revolving fund program. This is where we purchase properties, place them under conservation agreements and then sell those properties and reinvest the funds in future BCT programs.
We also run a philanthropy program that's now supported by new co-investment strategy.
And finally, we deliver education and citizen science programs where we engage with landholders, schools and communities in biodiversity learning. Since 2017, we've established 1806 in-perpetuity agreements that's protecting more than 589,000 hectares.
More than 400 of these agreements are supported by annual payments that totalled over $51 million last financial year.
So why does private land conservation matter? People depend on, value, and influence nature.
Private landholders are essential to the solution of declining biodiversity, especially as 80% of NSW land is privately managed and conservation requires in-perpetuity, meaning forever, agreements with active management. Landholders such as yourselves across NSW have a deep connection with the land they care for and protect for future generations. Our work with private landholders is essential to slowing biodiversity decline, reducing habitat loss and contributing to Australia's National Reserve System, a network of public, Indigenous and private protected areas. We've become a trusted government organisation in rural and regional areas by being reliable, fair and consistent, responsible and efficient in managing funds and focusing on securing the best value for money conservation outcomes.
We support landholders by having staff based locally who understand regional conditions, listening to and valuing landholder experience and building strong relationships with landholders to support conservation goals. We meet expectations to improve our state's environment by monitoring the ecological condition of private conservation areas to a globally recognised standard.
We set clear and consistent standards with agreement holders and then we also support agreement holders so they can confidently meet the standards.
And we put nature in the hands of future generations by offering in-perpetuity land covenants backed by invested funds to manage conservation forever.
We build capacity of NSW private land conservation communities, we continue to expand knowledge on threatened species and habitat, and we plan for climate and future challenges that our agreement holders may face. 

All right, So what is the Box Gum Woodland conservation offer? This program focuses on conserving Box Gum Grassy Woodlands across the Sydney Hunter, South East, Murray Riverina, Central West and Northern Inland regions of NSW.
Selected landholders have been invited to submit an expression of interest to enter into an in-perpetuity, meaning forever, conservation agreement to secure and actively manage areas of box gum grassy woodland in moderate to good condition.
Once successful, a BCT conservation agreement will be registered on your title and includes a legal description of the land which it applies rules on what you can and cannot do on your conservation area, a management plan outlining your ongoing conservation management obligations, a map of the conservation area and a payment scheduler detailing the funding arrangements.
A sample conservation agreement template is available on the website. Under this offer, you will receive annual payments per hectare per year. The payments are also indexed every year to CPI. In return, you agree to implement the management plan set out in your agreement and submit an annual report with photo monitoring to the BCT. Along the way, we'll provide you with conservation management advice and review the ecological condition of your site at the start and then every five years after. You may be also eligible for local government rate relief.
Next, we'll look at the eligibility requirements and steps in this process.
The participant eligibility key criteria includes applicants must be the owner of the land with an Australian bank account.
They must also be an Australian citizen, registered company for tax purposes or a trust that is linked to the ownership of the property.
They must be willing to enter an in-perpetuity conservation agreement and this agreement becomes binding for future landholders.
Applicants must also meet BCT's fit and proper personal requirements to enter a conservation agreement.
This is confirmed through a standard declaration during the application process. Landholders must also declare any conflicts of interest before they accept the offer and applicants cannot be currently negotiating a conservation agreement under another BCT program.
That is unless they've been advised that other agreement will not proceed. For more details, I encourage you to go to the landholder guide on the website. 

Site eligibility.
As I mentioned, the offer is by invitation only for private landholders who previously participated in the Commonwealth Environmental Stewardship Program, known as ESP for short, or they have reached the bid application stage in a previous BCT conservation program. If your ESP agreement is still active, you can still submit an EOI for this process. Sites that will be prioritised for assessment must be located within the Sydney, Hunter, South East, Murray Riverina, Central West and Northern Inland regions of NSW, contain at least 20 hectares of target box gum grassy woodland that's as defined by the official state and federal listing and assessed by BCT. Must be in moderate to good condition and result in an in-perpetuity agreement to
deliver agreed management actions for protecting and managing native vegetation and fauna. You can include other vegetation types in the proposed conservation area, but the above criteria must be met first.
So what are the steps to participate? We've invited you because your property is likely to meet the program eligibility requirements and because you've an existing interest in protecting and managing the conservation value on your site.
If you're interested in this program, we invite you to submit an expression of interest online to indicate your interest in an in-perpetuity conservation agreement. If your site is prioritised for an assessment then we'll work with you to nominate a proposed conservation area, confirm whether you meet the program eligibility requirements, agree on management actions to protect and manage biodiversity, prepare a management plan and then be advised of annual payment schedule.
If your proposed conservation area meets the target conservation values, you will be offered an in principal offer with an in-perpetuity agreement and schedule of payments indexed in line with inflation. If you accept our in principal offer then an expert panel will review your site and its values and make a recommendation to the BCT Board to approve the best value from any agreements. If the Board approves, you will then be invited to sign the conservation agreement.
We then register the conservation agreement on your land title and your first annual payment is made.
Next we'll look at the timeline and I'll go into more detail about each of the steps.
So here we have an overview of the process. Expressions of interest for the program have opened today and will close at 9am on the 1st of December. Once the EOI period ends, BCT will review and prioritise EOIs for site visits. Select sites will be notified and site visits will take place early next year.
It's early 2026 by March. We will work with you to develop the management plan and finalise the conservation area. If your site meets the eligibility criteria, you will receive an in principle offer in April.
Once offers are accepted, an expert panel will review the accepted offers and make recommendations to the BCT Board.
The Board will then approve the value for money offers in June 2026. Successful applicants will be notified by July and BCT will work with you to finalise the conservation agreement and this process of finalising can take anywhere between three to six months after.
If you're not ready to participate now, keep in mind there will be two more rounds in 2026, so you'll have more opportunities to join.
So step one, expressions of interest. EOIs have opened today on our website and they will close at 9am on Monday the 1st of December.
The easiest way to submit an EOI is via the program website which is www.nsw.gov.au/bct-bgw.
If you prefer paper form, we can send one to you, just call our help desk on 1300 992 688 or email us at info@bct.nsw.gov.au.
We'll provide details on where to post it. The EOI form will ask for your full name, contact details, property details which includes lot and DP that can be found on your rights notice, and your postal address.
The important fields will be marked with a red asterisk. Once you submit your EOI, you'll then receive an auto-generated email with instructions for the next step.
This email is important because it explains how to draw a map of your proposed area as the next step.
If you can use Google Maps you should manage easily, but if you need help at any time, please call our help desk as we're here to assist. If you submit your EOI by post then a hand drawn map will suffice.
Mapping your agreement area accurately is important because it helps us prioritise sites for assessment. Your proposed agreement area can also be adjusted during the site visits.
The BCT uses your EOI details to further determine whether you're eligible to enter into a conservation agreement under this program, so it's important to get your details right when submitting the form. This is a competitive process and not all EOIs will progress to the next stage.
We rank each EOI against set criteria to prioritise who we visit first.
So the EOIs will be ranked based on the size of the targeted area of box gum grassy woodland, the size of the total area of the proposed conservation site, and this will be based on your mapping and the risk of clearing in the future. And this is based on a separate layer that's called the land and soil capability mapping. Once all EOIs have been ranked, we will determine how many sites we can visit within the project time frame.
You will be notified of the outcomes whether successful or not by the end of the year and successful EOI's will then be scheduled for a site visit.
Submitting an EOI form is free and non binding and you can withdraw it anytime before signing the conservation agreement.
However, consider your involvement carefully before submitting an EOI. Developing management plans and conducting site visits takes time and resources for both you and the BCT. We want to avoid someone else missing out due to a late withdrawal that was caused by uncertainty about the program. Make sure to read the Landholder Guide and review the eligibility criteria before submitting an EOI. And if you need more time to decide, there'll be two additional rounds in 2026.
Of course, feel free to contact us after after the webinar if you do have any questions as we're here to help.
All right. Step 2, site assessments. So BCT will confirm during site visits whether your site, as in your vegetation, meets the eligibility requirements. Landholders selected for the site visits will be contacted and then site visits will be scheduled for early February 2026. Each selected site will be visited by two BCT teams, usually on separate days.
The first team will sit down with you to discuss the program specifics, confirm your proposed conservation area and review key elements for the management plan. This includes review of your fencing, weed and pest control and other required management actions. The management plan will then be attached to the conservation agreement.
The team will also map your tracks, fencing and any other infrastructure located within the proposed conservation area.
It is important that we record this infrastructure as it will be in your management maps and plans.
Then the second team will conduct the ecological assessment of your proposed conservation area.
They will confirm the presence of the target Box Gum Grassy Woodland communities and assess the ecological condition of your site.
Step 3. Developing and reviewing the Management Plan. Remember, the management plan will be part of your conservation agreement. The Landholder Support Officer will draft a management plan with you.
Its purpose is to guide you with the improvement and protection of your conservation area.
Management actions may include preventing spread of high threat weeds, controlling feral animals, installing fencing to protect conservation area from domestic stock and allowing for the regeneration of native vegetation.
The management plan will include maps that will show different management actions for specific areas, current and proposed infrastructure and vegetation types across the conservation area. You will receive the draft plan for review with time allowed for changes.
Once finalised, the draft then becomes your final management plan and will be provided along with the application form as part of our official formal process. 

Step 4.
Receiving your offer. You'll receive an in-principle offer to enter an in-perpetuity conservation agreement with the BCT, and this happens once your property has been assessed, your conservation area confirmed that it meets the eligibility criteria and your management plan has been finalised.
The offer will be in writing, provided by us. The offer will be tailored to your proposed conservation area and the unique biodiversity values that it supports. The offer will include your agreed conservation management plan and management actions, a schedule of the annual management payments that you'll be receiving, and any agreed upon special conditions.
You will have two weeks to consider your offer and then I'll also go into the pricing guide in a bit.
It is up to you to determine whether the proposed payments realistically cover your obligations in accordance with the management plan.
You'll need to consider your proposed conservation area, the resources that you have, and your ability to implement the management actions. When reviewing the management activities in your management plan, consider labour costs for management. This includes contractors or your own time, material costs for undertaking conservation management actions, so this includes fencing material, equipment or chemicals for pests and weed control, erosion control or plants for vegetation if applicable, the cost of equipment required to undertake management actions, the cost of seeking specialist advice from contractors, financial advisors, accountants or product suppliers, cost associated with stock exclusion, such as alternate water sources, any potential loss in income due to changes in income producing aspects of the conservation area.
So for example, if there's a loss of timber production now that your conservation agreement will be going ahead or there'll be a loss of grazing or other development opportunity and the time and costs associated in administering a conservation agreement.
So keeping in mind that our annual reporting obligations, that will take time.
Please note, for probity reasons, BCT staff cannot provide financial advice. We recommend seeking expert financial or legal advice before making a decision.
And of course, participation is voluntary to this program. This option may not suit every landholder or property, so it is important to understand how a conservation agreement can impact your current management practises on your property.
Now accepting and submitting your offer. To accept your offer, you'll need to complete the declarations provided to you in the format set up by us. Respond in writing by return email stating that you would like to accept the offer and proceed to a conservation agreement. Your acceptance must be received by the closing time and date of the offer.
If mailing an acceptance, Please ensure that sufficient time is allowed for the acceptance package to be received prior to that closing date.
We reserve the right to consider any acceptance received after the closing date where the integrity of the process is not compromised.
Please note, it is our decision to exclude incomplete acceptance declarations from the offer without further consideration.
Please submit your acceptance to the email in the slide that is tenders@bct.nsw.gov.au and these details will also be communicated to you down the line in writing. All right.
Step six, final assessment and approval of offers. All accepted and received offers will be compared by an assessment panel using the BCT's assessment metric. The metric applies a consistent, consistent numerical index of biodiversity benefit that's known as the biodiversity value score.
The panel also conducts a value for money assessment, and this is done by taking the biodiversity value score and dividing it by the total present value of the proposed payments for each conservation site, and this calculation produces what's called a Biodiversity Value Index, or BVI for each offer.
Based on the BVI, the assessment panel then makes a recommendation to the BCT Board on whether the conservation agreement should be improved or not. The Board then considers and approves the highest ranked offers.
Afterwards, successful land holders are invited to enter into a conservation agreement with the BCT.
So step 7. Notification of board approval. The BCT will contact all applicants who progressed to the BCT Board assessment stage. Successful applicants will receive a formal offer to enter into the conservation agreement and unsuccessful applicants may still be eligible to participate in future rounds of the program.
Keeping in mind that at this step it is also your last chance to withdraw from the offer, which can be done at any time before a conservation agreement is signed by both parties.
All right, Step 8. Your agreement is signed and registered, so if approved by the BCT Board, you will be invited to sign the conservation agreement with the management plan and your proposed payment schedule.
Once you've confirmed the decision to enter into an agreement with us, we will work with you to finalise the formal conservation agreement document.
Please note that before the BCT does approve any conservation agreement, we also will determine if there's a potential for disturbance to Aboriginal cultural heritage. So for an example is if you're putting in a new fence that will disturb soil, if there is a high risk of impact to Aboriginal artefacts or places due to these activities, then changes to management plan may be required and the BCT will pay for this assessment as well. Once all consents have been provided, for example, if you have a mortgage and that requires a bank consent and all landholders have signed the form, it is then executed by the BCT CEO Erin Giuliani. The BCT will then register your conservation agreement on your land title and once this is complete, we will be releasing your first annual management payment.
Now, what prices will you be offered? So over the years, BCT has delivered several tenders and programs targeting Box Gum Grassy Woodland. This has given us direct insight into the pricing that landholders are willing to accept for entering a conservation agreement. We've analysed the data and developed a price guide for this conservation offer.
Our goal is to give you an upfront idea of the annual management payment that you may receive if you decide to enter a conservation agreement with us.
The BCT offers a per hectare per year payment which continues for the life of the agreement and in this case that is in-perpetuity.
For this offer, payments can range from $50. to $200 per hectare per year, and this will depend on the size of the proposed conservation area, the amount of box gum woodland it contains, and the ecological condition of your native vegetation. In the next few slides, I'll show you some examples of how this can work.
So here we have a graph that shows the indicative pricing for this program.
Now it shows the scale from 50 to 200. Higher payments are generally offered for sites that have certain features, such as larger areas of box gum woodland, which is our target community. We're looking for good ecological condition or strong potential for quick improvement and productive land. So that includes fertile valley floors or gentle slopes.
Lower payments may be offered for sites with smaller areas of box gum woodland areas as well that have more non target native vegetation or box gum woodland in poor condition. And this can include management challenges. So that's like high weed load or high amount of pest animal or lower agricultural productivity. These sites may still be eligible, but payments may be on the lower end of the scale. Keep in mind that this price range is only a guide.
Actual payments can vary as some sites may receive over $200 per hectare per year and others may be just under $50 per hectare per year. And it depends on factors like the site's ecological condition, its size and positioning in the landscape. So what can these costs cover? They can include transaction costs, which are your legal or financial advice costs, time spent applying, and your time for ongoing annual reporting. They can cover direct management costs, so for fencing, weed and pest control and ongoing maintenance of conservation infrastructure like fencing.
And they can also include opportunity cost. So that's income that you may lose by changing how you use your land, like reducing grazing or giving up cropping or subdivision options. If you're eligible and prioritised for a site visit, then the BCT will give the final pricing after an individual site assessment and the BCT work with you to finalise that area of your proposed conservation agreement, determine how much of the area contains the box gum grassy woodland and assess the ecological condition of your area.
So here we have some conservation offer priced examples and I'll read them out.
So example 1 is a proposed conservation area has 500 hectares of intact box gum grassy woodland. Weed load is low. There are no major pest issues.
Site is assessed as moderate to good condition. The price offer per year that can be offered is $100,000.
Example 2 is a price proposed conservation area of 250 hectares of box gum grassy woodland and 250 hectares of non target native vegetation.
The weed load is high. There are some pest issues. The site is assessed as low to moderate ecological condition and the price offered per year here is 50,000. Example 3. There's a proposed conservation area of 100 hectares of box gum grassy woodland.
Weed load is low and there's no major pests. The site is assessed as moderate to good condition.
The price offer per year in this case is $10,000. Please note that these are example scenarios and individual annual payments will be calculated at a property scale. And we also don't want to overlook smaller sites, so keep in mind that even sites under 100 hectares in good ecological condition are worth submitting as part of your EOI final considerations.
Great. So grazing is allowed by livestock for up to 28 days per year and it is limited to events no longer than 14 days, with extended rest periods between events.
The allowed grazing regime, including the number of grazing days, will be in your agreement management plan.
Grazing is excluded for longer rest periods to promote native perennial ground cover and associated ecological function.
Grazing is to occur during a grazing window only if the ground cover is maintained at or above the healthy healthy condition threshold. This includes greater than 80% of ground cover and appropriate sward heights for key grass species. Grazing must only be used as a tool to achieve conservation outcomes, such as controlling weeds or managing biomass if it is causing biodiversity decline.
The timing of grazing is targeted to manage exotic species and avoid key growth times for native species.
Regular monitoring and adaptive management responses will be required as part of the grazing allowance.
Your grazing plan can include several years of rest before commencing the grazing regime.
The BCT also has grazing guidelines on our website to determine if grazing of your conservation area is appropriate.
So entering this programme, it is a big decision and we understand that and biodiversity conservation is at the core of this program.
Keeping in mind that our conservation agreement is registered on your land title, it is in-perpetuity, which can feel like a big commitment, and it commits you to management for biodiversity conservation, not for grazing.
You will receive annual payments in-perpetuity indexed to CPI and funding will be secured in a trust fund. Future owners are bound by the agreement and will continue to receive annual funding and the offer is a rigorous and competitive process.
So next steps for you, I encourage you to read over the landholder guide, consider the conservation opportunities that are on your property, contact us if you have any questions, and consider submitting an EOI by 9am on the 1st of December.
Otherwise, you can participate in rounds 2 and 3 in 2026 if you do need more time to decide.
All right, so now it's time for questions and I will wait for them to come onto my tablet and I'll read them out to you.
All right. So we have a question here. Are these grants only for in-perpetuity agreements or covenants?
So grants will not be part of this offer. We have run a specific program under, it's called Conservation Partners Program, CPP, and that is where we do give grants for landholders and that can be for termed agreements as well.
All right, there's a question here. I have an area that is smaller than 20 hectares. Will this be a problem?
So in general, BCT will prioritise eligible conservation sites for assessment with a minimum of 20 hectares of the target box gum grassy woodland that's been defined as a critically endangered community.
However, we do understand that the Commonwealth ESP programme allowed sites as small as 10 hectares.
While our preference is 20 hectares. We do reserve the right to accept sites that are between 10 and 20 hectares where the site contains outstanding examples of biodiversity value. So for example, this may be box gum grassy woodland in exceptional ecological condition. All right, so then we have, will the proposed area be exempt from council rights?
So you may be eligible for local rate relief.
Next question, are the definitions for moderate to good condition listed somewhere?
We're happy to take this one on board and reply back. Generally speaking, when you're looking at the ecological condition, it goes into the composition and structure. So that's looking at how many different species you have, how healthy does it look and also the function of the landscape. So is there a good amount of leaf litter, fallen logs for example?
Can the areas be separate within our farm or does it have to be in one block? They can be separate, but we also do measure how far away the patches are from each other. It's usually less than 100 metres from each other.
So we have here, does the $50 to $200 per hectare tank to account for a gone income.
So like I said that cost it can cover can include opportunity cost.
So that is income that's lost from other opportunities and we understand that it is very much a financial decision. So we that's why we recommend that you do seek expert financial advice to make sure that it is the best decision for you and your property.
There's a question here, if there are any carbon credits, who gets them? So this program has nothing to do with carbon or biodiversity credits.
There's separate agreements and programs set up for that.
All right, I'll give it, let's say, one more minute and then you're more than welcome to send us questions after this webinar.
All right, so we have higher the number of threatened species, for example, birds or reptiles assessed as part of this offer. We do have an emphasis on vegetation and that is on the health of your vegetation.
So threatened species would not be considered in the ecological assessments on your site. What we do is if you are successful, we do have a team of ecologists that will produce a site values report. And as part of that, we do look at the threatened species that can be found either in or in the vicinity of your property.
We have a question here where they have a land for wildlife agreement on the property and a conservation agreement as well. So we do have an existing obligations guideline on our website and I do encourage you to read over that to see how your situation will fit.
And if we did have a question come up about ATO and tax, and so I'll just read out loud that we encourage you to go to our taxation guide that is available on our website and to review Section 4.
We have another question. Does the agreement exclude you from entering into another program like carbon credits in the future? So in this case, if you are considering another agreement, let's say carbon, we do encourage you to talk to a carbon provider as they will understand the mechanisms best.
We of course can advise on our agreements, but we certainly recommend that you then talk to other proponents to see how these agreements would line up.
OK. So we did have a question is koala habitat valued. For any further questions that takes that is asking how we exactly value, let's say the landscape, the positioning and the layers, we're happy to take that on notice and we can come back with a formal reply to you. All right.
Well, thank you everyone for your time. I'm happy to come to an end.
So I will just leave you with this slide where to find more information so you can go like I said to our website, give us a call or email us and our info desk will be more than happy to help or pass it to the responsible regional team to provide further assistance.
All right. Thank you for your time.