Biodiversity experts
A biodiversity expert is someone that the Secretary of the department (or their delegate) has approved to prepare an expert report for inclusion in a Biodiversity Assessment Report.
Biodiversity experts have specialised knowledge to provide an expert opinion about an individual threatened species on a site to:
- determine its likely presence or absence
- identify its habitat without survey
- estimate its density and map the extent of habitat.
Biodiversity experts do not need to be an accredited assessor or have attended Biodiversity Assessment Method training.
Expert reports
An expert report relates only to species credit species. NSW BioNet houses information on the credit type for a threatened species.
The species expert must determine:
- the likely presence or absence of the species
- if present, map the species polygon.
Learn about biodiversity experts in Box 3 (in section 5) of the Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) 2020.
Applying for biodiversity expert status
To be listed as an expert, individuals must make a submission describing their credentials to the Secretary or delegate.
The submission must address all the following criteria:
- academic qualifications such as relevant degrees and postgraduate qualifications
- history of experience in the ecological research, habitat assessment and survey method for the relevant species
- a resumé detailing projects pertaining to the survey of the relevant species (including the locations and dates of the work), their employers' names and periods of employment (where relevant) over the previous 10 years
- peer-reviewed publications on the species or other evidence that the person is a well-known authority on the species to which the survey relates (the assessor cannot act as a referee for the proposed expert for this purpose).
Applications will only be considered for projects that require an expert report to be prepared.
Preparing an expert application
Applicants should prepare a separate submission addressing the above criteria for each individual species for which they are applying for expert status. Applicants should attach each submission to the application form.
The submission(s) and its application form should be:
- compiled into one PDF file and emailed to Biodiversity Assessment Method species expert mailbox
- signed by both the expert applicant and the accredited assessor managing the relevant project case.
We may contact the accredited assessor to confirm a current case in preparation.
Download the BAM 2020 biodiversity expert application form (PDF 138KB)
List of approved experts
The Secretary of the department may:
- publish a list of experts – this is not intended to be comprehensive and may have conditions and limits on the expert listing (for example, restrictions to certain regions of New South Wales)
- remove people from the list if, in their opinion, the person no longer has the specialist knowledge or if they behave unprofessionally – before removing people from the list, the person will be notified and given adequate opportunity to respond.
A person not on the published list of experts may be contracted to prepare an expert report but must be approved by the Secretary of the department (or delegate) before any Biodiversity Assessment Report is submitted that relies on expert report outcomes.
Download the current list of approved biodiversity experts (XLSX 762KB)
Note: Where an expert has a region next to their entry in this table, they are only approved for projects in the local government areas within that region.
For more information, please refer to