Thursday, May 27, 2010

Australia's 1st biobanking agreement

"NSW's Minister for Climate Change and the Environment Frank Sartor announced that the Department had signed its first official BioBanking agreement on an 80-hectare property near Camden in Western Sydney. The property, owned by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, includes 36 hectares of critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland, and habitat for 17 threatened species such as the Large-eared Pied Bat, Little Lorikeet and Cumberland Land Snail. Buyers have apparently already been secured, with the Sydney Growth Centres Biodiversity Offset Program purchasing two-thirds of the credits now (607 ecosystem credits), and the remainder in August. The Growth Centres funnels levies from developers in southwest and northwest Sydney. "

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