Distributive and contextual equity in landholder participation in biodiversity offsets: a case study of biodiversity offsets in New South Wales, Australia

While the challenges represented by biodiversity offsets in terms of biodiversity outcomes have been scrutinised in the scientific literature, less attention has been paid to the equity challenges they represent, particularly with regard to landholders’ individual ability to participate in biodiversity offsets. We address this knowledge gap by providing insights into the factors that enable some landholders and prevent others to participate in the biodiversity offset scheme operating in New South Wales (NSW, Australia). To do so, we build on the literature on Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), which addresses a range of equity challenges related to PES, albeit with a specific focus on developing countries. Our results show that experience, access to resources and information, support through formal and informal networks and land size explain why some landholders manage to participate in the biodiversity offset scheme in NSW, while others do not. In the discussion, we focus on identifying the support non-participating landholders would need in order to participate in the scheme and we provide recommendations to improve the equity in landholders’ access to biodiversity offsets in New South Wales. We also discuss the specificity of equity dimensions in a developed country context