My land is on the Biodiversity Values Map. Now what?

If your land is on the Biodiversity Values Map, the NSW Government has marked part of it as high value for plants and animals. You can still own it, sell it and often develop around it. But if a development needs to clear any of the mapped land, you'll need a Biodiversity Development Assessment Report and you'll probably have to pay for offsets. That cost, and the land you might have to keep, should come off what you pay.

The map doesn't stop a rezoning by itself. Plenty of sites with mapped bushland get rezoned, with the mapped part kept as a reserve. The real question is how much of the site it covers and whether the rest still makes a good subdivision.

What is the Biodiversity Values Map?

It's a state map of land that is "particularly sensitive to impacts from development", in the words of the NSW environment department. It sits inside a free online tool called the Biodiversity Values Map and Threshold Tool, often shortened to BMAT. The department makes the map under Part 7 of the Biodiversity Conservation Regulation 2017.

Anyone can look up a lot in the tool. It tells you if any of it is mapped and gives you a report you can save. Developers, landholders and councils all use it.

Why does land end up on the map?

Land goes on the map because it fits one of the types the regulation lists. The ones you're most likely to meet on rural land near a town are:

• biodiverse riparian land, which is native bush along creeks
• land with threatened species or ecological communities that could suffer serious and irreversible harm
• high conservation value grasslands or groundcover
• core koala habitat in an approved koala plan of management
• areas a council has nominated for wildlife corridors or threatened species habitat

The full list also covers coastal wetlands, Ramsar wetlands, old growth forest and rainforest, and any other land the department's head thinks is valuable enough.

The map changes. The government's open data listing says it's planned to update the map every three months, and land that no longer meets the criteria is taken off. So check it again just before you buy, not only when you first look. If you think your land is mapped by mistake, the department has a map review team you can contact through its "Your Map enquiry" form.

What does being on the map mean for clearing?

When a development needs council consent, the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme kicks in if the work crosses a threshold. Being on the map is one threshold. If any of your clearing footprint touches mapped land, you're in.

The other threshold is the amount of native vegetation you clear, anywhere on the site. It depends on the minimum lot size for the land:

Where the local environmental plan sets no minimum lot size, you use the actual lot size. A third test asks whether the work is likely to significantly affect threatened species. So land that isn't mapped can still bring you into the scheme.

Once you're in, a Biodiversity Development Assessment Report has to go with the development application. The council, as the consent authority, decides whether the threshold is crossed.

What are BDARs and offsets, in plain words?

A Biodiversity Development Assessment Report (BDAR) is a study by an accredited ecologist. They survey the site, follow the state's Biodiversity Assessment Method, and work out what your project would harm and how many "biodiversity credits" it would need to make up for it.

The scheme works in a set order: avoid, minimise, offset. First you show you've avoided harm where you reasonably can, for example by keeping the best bush out of the lot layout. Then you show you've kept the rest of the harm as small as you can. Only what's left gets offset.

Offsetting means paying for nature to be protected somewhere else. You can buy credits from landholders who have signed Biodiversity Stewardship Agreements to look after their land forever, then retire them. Or you can pay into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund and let the state find the offsets. The price depends on what you're clearing and what credits are around, so get a real figure from your ecologist before you count on anything.

Some harm can't be offset at all. If the BDAR finds the work could cause serious and irreversible impacts on a species or community, approval gets much harder, and money won't fix it.

Does the map kill a rezoning?

Not on its own. The offsets scheme bites when a development application is lodged, not at the rezoning. But no one sensible rezones land for houses without knowing what's on it. Councils often ask for an early biodiversity report with the planning proposal, and the proposal has to show the site suits the new use.

There's also a bigger option called biodiversity certification. Councils, planning authorities and landowners can apply for it, and the Environment Minister grants it. It deals with the biodiversity question for a whole area up front, usually alongside a rezoning, so later stages have more certainty. It's a lot of work and suits larger sites.

What usually happens is that the mapped land becomes the edge of the project. It's kept, often zoned for conservation or as a park, and the lots go on the cleared paddocks. That works well when the mapped land sits along a creek or a boundary. It works badly when it runs through the middle and cuts the site into pieces that are hard to build roads to.

Should you keep the mapped land or clear it?

Run the numbers both ways. Keeping it costs you lots. Clearing it costs offsets, a longer BDAR and the risk that the council or the ecologist says no anyway.

Here's the sample site our report uses. Ridgeback Creek (demo) is made up, but these are the numbers our engine gives for it. It has 2.4 hectares of Biodiversity Values Map land, out of 38.8 hectares in total.

• Keep it. The 2.4 ha comes off the land you can build on. Bushfire buffers then go around the kept bushland too, starting at 35 metres. After creeks, flood land, slopes and buffers, 24.3 ha is left to build on.
• Clear it. At the report's starting figure of $180,000 a hectare, offsets for 2.4 ha come to about $430,000, before the extra time and the chance the clearing isn't approved.

Our report starts by keeping mapped land, because that's what usually gets approved. You can switch it to clear and see the value change straight away. Bushfire buffers matter here too, so read our guide to asset protection zones to see how kept bushland pushes houses back.

What's changing in 2026?

The Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Offsets Scheme) Act 2024 mostly started on 7 March 2025. It puts the avoid, minimise, offset order into the Act and moves the scheme towards "net positive" outcomes for nature.

Some of it needs a new regulation to work. The draft Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Offsets Scheme) Regulation 2026 was out for comment from 5 June to 17 July 2026. It aims to strengthen avoiding and minimising harm, rely less on the Biodiversity Conservation Fund and treat small, low-impact projects more fairly. When we checked on 18 October 2026, the department still described it as a draft, and we found no sign it had been made. If it is, paying into the fund could get harder for some projects, so check its status before you rely on the fund route.

What should you check before you buy?

1. Look up every lot in the Biodiversity Values Map and Threshold Tool and save the report with its date.
2. Find the minimum lot size, so you know your clearing threshold.
3. Draw the mapped land on a plan and see where it sits. Edge or middle makes a big difference.
4. Ask the council if it has asked for biodiversity studies on nearby planning proposals.
5. Get an ecologist to walk the site before you commit. A quick look costs far less than a full BDAR.

Our free lot yield calculator shows what happens to your lot count when mapped land comes off. For the whole list of checks, see the greenfield due diligence checklist, and to see how kept land changes the price you can pay, read how englobo land is valued.

Sources: Biodiversity Values Map and Threshold Tool (NSW DCCEEW, updated 12 January 2026); Land types on the Biodiversity Values Map (NSW DCCEEW, updated 9 September 2025); Biodiversity Values Map dataset (Data.NSW, last updated 15 October 2026); Avoid, minimise, offset hierarchy (NSW DCCEEW, updated 6 February 2024); Biodiversity certification (NSW DCCEEW, updated 14 February 2024); Biodiversity Offsets Scheme reforms (NSW DCCEEW, updated 17 July 2026); Draft Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Regulation 2026: public consultation (NSW DCCEEW, updated 17 July 2026).