DCCEEW Updates Legislative Methods for the Nature Repair Market

Overview

On 14 April 2026, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) published updated guidance on the legislative methods that will govern the operational framework of Australia’s Nature Repair Market. The update covers two methods currently in development, “Enhancing native vegetation” and “Protect and conserve,” and confirms that the biodiversity certificates generated under these methods can, in specified circumstances, be used as statutory environmental offsets under relevant environment protection laws. This confirmation follows the passage of environmental law reforms in late 2025, which amended the Nature Repair Act 2023 and created an explicit legislative link between the Nature Repair Market and Australia’s broader biodiversity offset architecture.

For environmental consultants, ecologists, project proponents, and ESG advisors, this update delivers the regulatory clarity the market has needed since the Nature Repair Market was first established. The ability to use biodiversity certificates as statutory offsets under the reformed EPBC Act means that biodiversity gains generated through registered Nature Repair Market projects now carry direct commercial value for developers and infrastructure project proponents who must demonstrate Net Gain outcomes as a condition of federal environmental approval. Until now, the pathway from ecological restoration activity to offset credit had remained legally ambiguous, limiting private sector appetite for investment in large-scale conservation projects.

Equally significant is the confirmation on credit stacking. The updated DCCEEW guidance clarifies that a project proponent can register a Nature Repair Market project on the same area of land as an existing Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) project. This means landholders operating under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 can simultaneously earn ACCUs through eligible carbon abatement activities and biodiversity certificates through eligible ecological enhancement activities on the same parcel. This single clarification has the potential to change the financial modelling for ecological restoration, land stewardship, and contaminated site remediation projects across Australia.

Key details of the DCCEEW Nature Repair Market method update

The two methods described in the 14 April 2026 update are “Enhancing native vegetation” and “Protect and conserve.” These methods are the operative legislative instruments that define what activities qualify for Nature Repair Market registration, how ecological gains are measured and verified, and, critically, whether the resulting biodiversity certificates are eligible for use as statutory environmental offsets. The updated guidance confirms that the methods will explicitly state offset eligibility on a method-by-method basis, providing proponents and their advisers with certainty at the point of project design rather than at the point of approval.

The measurement and verification of ecological gains under these methods relies on the Biodiversity Assessment Instrument. This instrument standardises the quantification of biodiversity improvements across Australian bioregions, providing a consistent and auditable metric for determining the value and offset eligibility of a biodiversity certificate. The use of a standardised assessment instrument is important from a regulatory integrity perspective, as it ensures that certificates generated in ecologically diverse regions such as tropical Queensland, the arid zone, or temperate grasslands of the south-east are assessed against a common framework rather than ad hoc methodologies. This consistency is also what allows certificates to function as statutory offsets, since regulators and proponents need confidence that a unit of biodiversity gain in one bioregion is genuinely comparable to a unit in another.

The credit stacking clarification is grounded in the interaction between the Nature Repair Act 2023 (as amended) and the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011. The updated guidance confirms that the same area of land can simultaneously support an ACCU project and a Nature Repair Market project, provided each project meets the eligibility and additionality requirements of its respective legislative framework. This is a material change from earlier interpretations that had cast doubt on whether co-registration was permissible. Proponents who register under both schemes can receive payment for carbon sequestration or avoidance activities through the ACCU mechanism and separately receive biodiversity certificates for ecological improvements on the same land area. There is no requirement under the updated guidance for land areas to be geographically separated between the two schemes.

The Nature Repair (Replanting Native Forest and Woodland Ecosystems) Methodology Determination 2025 is one of the operative instruments the updated guidance draws upon. This determination provides the specific methodological rules for projects focused on replanting activities, including eligible species, planting densities, and monitoring requirements. The broader update to the methods framework on 14 April 2026 sits above these individual determination documents and provides the overarching policy architecture within which methodology-specific rules are applied. For practitioners, this means that assessing project eligibility requires interrogating both the relevant methodology determination and the updated methods framework to understand offset eligibility and stacking permissions for a given site.

Australian regulatory context for biodiversity certificates and environmental offsets

The Nature Repair Market sits within a rapidly evolving Australian environmental law framework. The late 2025 environment protection reforms amended

References and related sources

• Primary source: www.dcceew.gov.au
• liv.asn.au
• climatebiodiversity.org
• EPBC Act

How iEnvi can help

iEnvi provides specialist consulting services relevant to this topic. Our team includes CEnvP Site Contamination Specialists with experience across contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, ecology, and regulatory compliance.

• iEnvi remediation services
• iEnvi contaminated land investigation services
• iEnvi expert services and independent review services

This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.

Published: 20 Apr 2026

Need advice on this topic? Speak to an iEnvi expert at hello@ienvi.com.au or 1300 043 684, or contact us online.