Strategic Offset Policy and Biodiversity Offset Guidelines · Attachment 1 - Strategic Offsets Policy - (Biodiversity) Final

 Term                     Meaning
 Mitigation               A set of principles which guide decision making regarding offset
 Hierarchy                approval
 Principles
 Nature-based             The act of working with nature to deliver benefits to people and
 Solutions                the natural environment. They include the protection, restoration
                          or sustainable management of ecosystems, habitats and
                          productive lands, and can support and enhance biodiversity and
                          ecosystem health and help address climate risks, while
                          simultaneously providing a range of ecosystem services to
                          people and community wellbeing.
 Nature Positive          An outcome whereby actions result in the overall improvement of
                          biodiversity, ecosystem health, ecological connectivity, and
                          resilience, such that nature is measurably better than the
                          baseline condition and any environmental losses are outweighed
                          by environmental gains.
 Net Gain                 An outcome whereby biodiversity values are enhanced beyond
                          the level required to compensate for impacts, resulting in an
                          overall improvement in the extent, condition, connectivity, or
                          resilience of ecosystems, habitats, species, or ecological
                          processes.
 Noosa Plan 2020          A dataset which maps environmental values that are identified
 Biodiversity,            and protected across Noosa Shire and which trigger assessment
 Waterways and            of development against the overlay code.
 Wetlands Overlay
 Noosa Shire              The local government area administered by Noosa Council,
                          encompassing the communities, landscapes, waterways, and
                          natural environments located within its legally defined
                          boundaries.
 Offsets Program          Ecological compensation activities that aim to mitigate losses of a
                          biodiversity feature (i.e. a particular species, assemblage, or
                          ecosystem) because of unavoidable development.
 Permanence               A requirement that offset units are permanently maintained. For
                          biodiversity offsets, this includes the implementation of
                          permanent legal mechanisms to protect and offset receiving site
                          and to manage it in perpetuity to maintain the desired
                          environmental values intended.

PRINCIPLES
Council’s offset programs must:
   1. Adhere to the Mitigation Hierarchy - avoid, then reduce/mitigate before offsetting as
      a last resort;
   2. Adopt a target-based approach to biodiversity compensation – align offsets to
      broader conservation targets that provide for a ‘net gain’ in biodiversity outcomes;
   3. Provide for additionality- secure additional, measurable biodiversity outcomes that
      would not have happened otherwise;
   4. Ensure permanence of biodiversity gains – offsets must be lasting and durable (low
      risk of reversal) over the long term;




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Noosa Council Offsets Strategic Policy 2026