News

Ingleside Chase Reserve - Biodiversity Banking and Offsets Scheme

6 March 2019

Ingleside Chase Reserve is a 70-hectare bushland reserve owned and managed by Council and is located on the Warriewood Escarpment between the suburbs of Warriewood, Ingleside and Elanora Heights. It contains a number of vegetation communities and a suite of listed threatened species. The reserve is currently managed via bushland restoration and hazard reduction contracts.

Council engaged ecological consultants to conduct surveys, assessment and reporting required to establish the reserve as a biobank site under the OEH’s Biodiversity Banking and Offsets Scheme.

A biobank site is an area of land over which the landowner has agreed to place a biobanking agreement to manage land for conservation. A Biobanking Assessment Report was prepared to calculate the number of biodiversity credits for Ingleside Chase Reserve based on the vegetation type and fauna species present. The credits can be purchased by developers looking to offset their environmental impact. The proceeds then go into the Biobanking Trust Fund which provides for the environmental management of the reserve in perpetuity.