13 May What is the Nature Repair Market?

by Andrew Lewis

The Nature Repair Market is Australia’s first national, legislated biodiversity market. It aims to incentivise actions that restore and protect Australia’s environment, allowing individuals and organisations to invest in projects that have positive outcomes for biodiversity, and receive tradeable biodiversity certificates.

Participating in the Nature Repair Market is voluntary and could include projects that restore Indigenous habitats on farmland, re-establish vegetation along waterways, or protect and manage existing habitats.

The Nature Repair Market commenced operation in March 2025, launching its first method – the replanting native forest and woodland ecosystems method. This method aims to enhance biodiversity by replanting native forest and woodland ecosystems in previously cleared landscapes.

We are expecting more methods for restoring different types of ecosystems to be launched soon, including:

• An enhancing remnant vegetation method—to encourage protection and enhancement of existing native vegetation.
• A permanent protection method— to protect and conserve biodiversity in line with Australia’s national goal of protecting 30 percent of land by 2030.
• A native forest method to protect, restore and manage native forests.
• An invasive pest management method to focus on the control of specific feral pests or weeds.
• A rangelands method to manage and enhance habitat in the arid and semi-arid areas of Australia.

Who is the Nature Repair Market For?

A wide range of participants can take part in the Nature Repair Market, including landholders, First Nations peoples, conservation groups, and farmers—provided their project meets the eligibility criteria. The scheme is expected to be particularly appealing to farmers and landholders in the agricultural sector who are looking to diversify their income while boosting land resilience.

Landowners already involved in Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) projects may also be interested, as there is potential to ‘stack’ a Nature Repair Market project with an ACCU project—earning credits for two environmental outcomes from a single restoration effort.

Proponents in other sectors such as land development or renewables also have an opportunity move beyond compliance by investing in Nature Positive through the Nature Repair Market. This is likely to be attractive to customers and investors who are interested in sustainability and the Nature Positive agenda.

Biodiversity Certificates can be purchased by private sector organisations aiming to meet Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG); sustainability; or Nature Positive goals, including those aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Private investors may also purchase certificates for philanthropic reasons or choose to fund restoration projects directly.

The Commonwealth Government may buy certificates as part of its national commitment to protect 30% of Australia’s land and seas by 2030, in alignment with its Nature Positive Plan.

How We Can Help

Nature Advisory has decades of experience in biodiversity assessment, offset planning, and ecological restoration, and we are well equipped to support your Nature Repair Market project.

The Nature Repair Market methods require a project proponent to engage a ‘Suitably Qualified Person’ (SQP) to:

• carry out a field survey during the starting state assessment, carry out an ecosystem assessment and develop the project plan.
• be involved in monitoring and preparing monitoring reports as the project progresses.

Our staff at Nature Advisory meet all the specific criteria for SQP; we are qualified in and have many years working as ecologists, botanists and zoologists. We can support your Nature Repair Market project at every stage – from project planning to ongoing monitoring and compliance.

The scheme also requires proponents to obtain all relevant planning or environmental approvals to carry out the project activity. Our team has many years of experience assisting environmental approvals for many different types of projects, and we can also assist in this part of project .

Get in touch to explore how we can help bring your Nature Repair Market project to life.