The NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) is a statutory (NSW Government) not-for-profit body established under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, which commenced operating in 2017. The BCT is within the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) and is investing $70 M/year in private land conservation across priority landscapes in NSW.

The BCT's purpose is partnering with landholders to enhance and conserve biodiversity across NSW.

In total, the BCT is managing over 2,200 private land conservation agreements with landholders over 2.2 million hectares, representing almost 3 per cent of the landmass of NSW

The BCT's four strategic goals are to:  

• Increase private land conservation in areas of strategic biodiversity value 
• Deliver efficient, effective and strategic biodiversity offset outcomes 
• Support participating landholders to conserve biodiversity  
• Promote public knowledge, appreciation and understanding of biodiversity and the importance of conservation

Internship opportunities

Internships may focus on a variety of desktop-based projects related to analysis and interpretation of ecological data, developing conservation management guidelines for landholders, or spatial data management and analysis (e.g. using ArcGIS). Interns undertaking desktop-based projects can work remotely or be based out of the BCT Queanbeyan office one day per week for the extent of the 12-week internship.

In addition to desk-based projects the BCT may offer interns an opportunity to participate in field work with regional delivery staff on private properties in the Southeast and Murray Riverina BCT regions.

These internship projects will support the delivery of BCT’s programs to landholders and will be a combination of both desktop office work plus field work. The field component may include ecological monitoring of established conservation agreement areas or development of site value reports for landholders with Conservation Partnership agreements. The extent of any field work component during the internship will be dependent upon project availability and will require flexibility to be available to participate in the field program schedule of the regional delivery team an intern is placed with. For example the field work component of a placement may be conducted for a block of time in one to two weeks rather than one day per week.

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