Land services for business

How we can help your organisation achieve conservation goals

Achieve your environmental goals

Trust for Nature works with businesses to achieve goals for good corporate citizenship and deliver great outcomes for Victoria’s biodiversity. We have been working with landowners around Victoria for over 45 years to protect 100,000 hectares of habitat to date, and we are actively seeking to engage businesses in partnerships as we take a landscape-scale approach to Victoria’s biodiversity conservation.

Trust for Nature offers a suite of services to business to enhance the environmental sustainability of your property portfolio. We tailor solutions to your company’s goals for land management, and will work with you one-on-one to design a package of services so that your business can be proud of its green credentials.

Conservation covenants

The ultimate form of habitat protection on private land in Victoria is a Trust for Nature conservation covenant, which is a legally binding agreement with landowners. Its purpose is to permanently conserve and protect the natural, cultural or scientific assets of the land. This agreement is voluntary and negotiated between Trust for Nature and each individual landowner. Once agreed, the covenant is registered on the title and protects habitat forever. Our Stewardship Program allows Trust for Nature to work with landowners to improve the condition of the covenanted habitat.

To meet stakeholder interests and achieve environmental credentials, many businesses are now looking at acquiring land for the purpose of conservation. Trust for Nature can assist with the permanent protection, and future plans for management, of your conservation property.

Land services

Assessing your land

Do you need help in identifying the biodiversity assets on your property? Trust for Nature’s conservation officers can undertake flora and fauna assessments, either for due diligence or land management planning. This information can help inform your decisions about land use, siting developments, or finding additional income streams such as from offset markets.

Mapping biodiversity

Our staff are experienced in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and can create mapping solutions from existing statewide databases and spatial layers to provide desktop studies, or more in-depth and accurate information from field assessments to support your business with the GIS analysis it needs to make land management decisions.

Revegetation

Trust for Nature works closely with Greening Australia, Catchment Management Authorities, and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning to attract funding for revegetation projects on private land within our priority areas, especially where revegetation supports the recovery of populations of threatened plants and animals. Revegetation projects can either supplement existing habitat, or restore habitat from the ground up.

Monitoring

Trust for Nature’s staff are experts in a range of other scientific survey methods and can design a monitoring program that allows you to report on your corporate citizenship goals. We regularly conduct surveys for flora and fauna, using a range of specialised techniques including catch-and-release trapping, trail cameras, quadrat surveys, pitfall trapping and spotlighting transects.

Please note that permits are required for some types of monitoring – Trust for Nature holds relevant permits for all the work that we do.

Pest plant and animal control

Trust for Nature’s conservation staff can help you to meet your obligations under the Victorian Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 to tackle the problem of weeds and pests. We can create pest plant and animal management plans for your property portfolio, and work with contractors to implement pest plant and animal control programs. Trust for Nature is proud to be increasingly working with Victoria’s traditional owner groups in delivering these types of programs.

Finding and applying for projects on your land

In some areas, these types of activities may be partly or fully funded by grants from the Victorian or Australian Government. In other areas, businesses can engage Trust for Nature themselves for assistance with managing biodiversity on their land. We are a not-for-profit organization, and this is reflected in our service fees.

If you would like to partner with Trust for Nature in achieving your corporate citizenship goals, please contact our Strategic Projects Manager to start a conversation about how we can work together.

Biodiversity offsets

Trust for Nature's biodiversity offset program offers businesses a means of meeting your planning permit requirements, and landowners funding to support the management of their land for environmental purposes.

Under State and Federal legislation, the unavoidable removal of native vegetation on one site may require the protection and enhancement of similar vegetation at another. A biodiversity offset is an agreement where a landowner undertakes to protect and improve the quality of native vegetation on their land to permit the approved removal of vegetation elsewhere.

Trust for Nature matches businesses who have an offset requirement with landowners who have suitable vegetation. We develop an offset agreement and a covenant for the landowner that creates a legal obligation to improve native vegetation over a 10 year period and protect it forever. Under the offset agreement, the business provides funds to the landowner to meet this legal obligation. Trust for Nature facilitates this payment as well as the documentation required to meet planning approvals. As part of the offset agreement, your business will be required to fund the cost of the offset obligations on the landowner’s property. This payment is made as a lump sum to Trust for Nature who will distribute the funds to the landowner over the 10 year agreement. Once the lump sum payment has been made, your business typically has no further obligations to implement the offset, unless specifically identified in the planning approval.

Conservation planning

We have over 40 years’ experience strategically planning conservation outcomes using best environmental practice. This typically ranges across landscapes and large parcels of land. We have worked with single government agencies for a specific site, right up to collaborative approaches with many landholders and communities. Trust for Nature has dedicated conservation planners on staff, so if your business or your community are interested in looking at a landscape approach to conservation in your area, please get in touch.

Resources

Get in touch

Ready to talk about conservation options for your business?