Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot

The Application Form must be submitted by 5.00pm (AEDT) on 27 October 2021. It is recommended that you submit your application well before the closing time and date.

Late applications will not be assessed except in exceptional circumstances.

You will be notified of the outcome of your application at the end of the selection process.  For probity reasons, to treat all applicants fairly and equally, it is not possible to give you information about the status of individual applications during the assessment process.

Please visit our webpage for information on the pilot including factsheets, case studies scenarios, videos and important documentation. Look for the ERV Pilot tab on the left side of the webpage.

To be eligible, you must satisfy the requirements listed in section 4 of the ERV Pilot guidelines.

Please review the guidelines and visit our website for further information about who is eligible and how to apply.

The pilot is being run in six Natural Resource Management regions:

• Burnett-Mary in QLD
• Central West in NSW
• North Central in VIC
• NRM North in Tasmania
• Eyre Peninsula in SA
• South West in WA

The six Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions were chosen to test the pilot across a range of farming systems, vegetation types and jurisdictions to generate the necessary data to effectively trial the pilot’s policy objectives. Other NRM regions may be included in the future but have not been determined at this point in time.

Applications will be open from 29 September 2021 and close at 5.00pm (AEST) on 27 October 2021.  

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide project details such as the address of the property, the location of the project area and some information regarding the vegetation condition and management history, and project cost estimates (fencing, cost of management activities and other associated costs). Review the Application Guide for further details. Applications can be lodged through the Agriculture Stewardship portal.

Applications can only be lodged through the Agriculture Stewardship portal.

Read our Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot project case study:

If you have difficulty accessing these files, please visit web accessibility for assistance.

The Smart farms program (2017-18 to 2022-23) is a separate Australian Government initiative that is complementary to the aims of the Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Package. Part of the second phase of the National Landcare Program, the program supports the development and uptake of best practice, tools and technologies for:

• Farmers and land managers
• Fishers
• Foresters
• Regional communities

You can call 1800 329 055 or email agstewardship@awe.gov.au for queries about the application process. You can also call your local Natural Resource Management organisation for more details:

For contact details of NRM group staff please visit https://www.agsteward.com.au/program/erv-pilot/contact.html and find your region.

ERV Pilot project areas must be between 5 and 200 hectares to be eligible. Projects must include at least one remnant management area, and may also include revegetation areas provided these areas do not constitute more than 20% of the total project area. Additional project size conditions apply. See the ERV Pilot Guidelines for further information.

We strongly recommend that applicants seek independent professional advice about participation in this pilot, potentially including financial, legal, and agronomy specialists. You should decide what advice to seek as appropriate for your circumstances.

No. ERV Pilot projects must not receive support under another federal, state/territory or local government environment or natural resource management program. Support for these purposes includes the issuance of Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) to a project by the Clean Energy Regulator under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Cth). This exclusion applies even if a proponent intends to sell the ACCUs to private and/or state government buyers rather than the Australian Government under the Emissions Reduction Fund/Climate Solutions Fund.

Successful applicants will receive biodiversity enhancement payments over the 10-year project period.

These payments will have two components.

• An annual ‘rental’ component that represents a ‘rental’ payment for using the land for conservation purposes, based on the estimated market value of the land comprising the project area. It will be paid annually and will increase by 3.5% per annum over the 10-year project period to reflect likely increases in land values. At the time of submitting the application, applicants can nominate a lower amount than their estimated ‘rental’ payment to increase their chances of a successful application.
• A management activity component that is designed to cover the cost of the additional management activities proposed to enhance the condition of the vegetation for biodiversity. The management activity component will be calculated using cost estimates submitted by applicants. However, the amounts payable will be capped for each relevant cost component. If an estimate submitted by an applicant exceeds the relevant cap, the cap price will be used for making the payment offer. The cap prices will not be published to help us test the use of a market-based approach to on-farm biodiversity improvements.

Review the ERV Pilot Guidelines for further information.

The amount of money you can receive if successful under the ERV Pilot varies and depends on the two different payments. The first is a rental component—which varies according to the value of the land on which the project area is located. The second is the management activity component—which is influenced by the management activities you select and the price estimates you provide in your application.

You can see an estimate of your rental component when you draw your proposed project boundaries in the application form (www.agsteward.com.au).

The six Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions were chosen to test the pilot across a range of farming systems, vegetation types and jurisdictions to generate the necessary data to effectively trial the pilot’s policy objectives. Selection criteria identified the best regions to test the applications of the biodiversity measurement protocols that are being applied under the pilot. The choice of regions provides broad geographical spread and will facilitate the testing of the biodiversity measurement protocols in a range of different agricultural environments.

The proposed regions and selection criteria were identified in consultation with the Australian National University, the Agriculture Stewardship Advisory Group (established to provide stakeholder input to the development, implementation and review of components of the Agriculture Stewardship Package) and departmental experts.

Applications will be subject to an initial screening to determine whether the project and applicant meet the eligibility requirements, followed by a prioritisation process to determine which projects will proceed to site assessment. Following site assessment, eligible applications will be assessed and ranked in accordance with the process detailed in section 8 of the ERV Pilot Guidelines.

To assess the applications, the Minister for Agriculture will establish an assessment panel, chaired by a senior officer of the department. The panel will include 2 departmental employees, and 2 specialist advisors from the Australian National University. All members of the assessment panel will be expected to perform their duties in accordance with the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines (CGRG) 2017 (section 2.9). An independent probity advisor will support the selection advisory panel, and other experts may be invited by the chair in a non-voting capacity. The selection advisory panel will use the selection criteria at section 6 of the guidelines, which use a cost benefit analysis, to look at how much biodiversity is created per dollar. That benefit per dollar is then used to rank projects. The panel will then recommend which projects should be successful to the decision maker.

All landowners will need to complete their own application, however they could do so for adjacent areas of land and coordinate their activities. Coordination between projects will need to be driven and managed by landowners amongst themselves. Each application will be assessed on its own merits. The ERV Pilot Guidelines set out eligibility criteria for both the proposed project and the applicant/s. Applicants need to carefully read the eligibility criteria as they apply to all members of the project.

The ERV Pilot and Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot are both part of the Agriculture Stewardship Package. The Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Package contains several components that will are developing market arrangements to reward farmers for protecting biodiversity and identify other sustainability opportunities. You can read more about the Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Package at: awe.gov.au/agriculturestewardship.

The ERV Pilot is designed to reward farmers for enhancing and protecting remnant vegetation on their properties (existing vegetation). The Carbon + Biodiversity Pilot provides farmers with the opportunity to receive both carbon credits and biodiversity payments for establishing and managing environmental plantings (new plantings).

Successful applicants will be required to enter into 10-year agreements under the Pilot. Landholders that wish to pursue longer-term or alternative protection of their remnant vegetation (e.g. conservation covenants) should contact the Department or their local NRM organisation to discuss options.

Project areas under the ERV Pilot must not include remnant vegetation that is already required to be protected under:

• a conservation covenant, conservation agreement or other similar legal agreement that attaches to title (or ‘runs with the land’); or
• the Emissions Reduction Fund (Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Cth)).

Contact the Department if you are unsure whether your existing agreement makes you ineligible.

No. Provided your project area meets all other eligibility requirements, including the minimum size and configuration requirements for individual areas, and total project area requirements, you can include as many different areas as you like.

A project can have remnant management areas and revegetation areas that are located on different properties and different land titles. However, the applicant for such a project must have the legal right to control how all the relevant parcels of land are used.

The rental component of the biodiversity enhancement payment is based on the estimated market value of the land comprising the project area (i.e. both the remnant management areas and any revegetation areas). It has been calculated through analysis of extensive real estate sales data across different land use categories.

The rental component will be paid annually to successful applicants and will increase by 3.5% per annum over the 10-year project period to reflect likely increases in land values.

Applicants that have previously received funding from other programs are welcome to apply, however, should only seek ERV pilot funding for activities that are additional to those they are currently undertaking and/or already commenced. Also, under the duty of utmost good faith applicants should note in their application any information that is relevant to what the Australian Government is trying to achieve with the Pilot, including any activities they are proposing that may already be funded by another organisation. Details of existing agreements or arrangements should be fully disclosed in your application or via email.