Wellington, Aug 14 NZPA - NZX's carbon market subsidiary TZ1 has picked up another role in the world's emerging environmental markets.

TZ1, which describes itself as an environmental markets infrastructure provider, announced today it had been appointed as a global registry for the Malua Wildlife Habitat Conservation Bank (biobank).

The biobank, which is raising money for rainforest conservation in Malua, Malaysia, says it is a new business model for rainforest conservation.

The biobank will generate biodiversity conservation certificates, each of which will represent 100sq m of rainforest restoration and protection.

TZ1's role will be to provide a secure online facility enabling efficient issuance, housing, ownership transfer and retirement of the conservation certificates.

The biobank said it would use a multimillion dollar investment from the Eco Products Fund to restore and protect 34,000ha of formerly logged forest.

The eco fund is a private equity fund jointly managed by New Forests Inc of Washington, DC and Equator Environmental of New York.

It has committed up to $US10 million ($NZ14.4 million) for the rehabilitation of the Malua Forest Reserve during the next six years, and will also endow a trust fund for conservation management for a further 44 years.

The project is seen as enabling private sector companies working in Malaysia or sourcing products from the country to help fund the restoration and protection of a high conservation value rainforest.

The biobank said Malaysia was becoming a hotspot for agricultural expansion. At the same time energy, food and cosmetics companies relying on agribusiness products, particularly palm oil, were increasingly scrutinized for perceived impacts on rainforests.

By buying the conservation certificates, buyers could make a contribution to forest conservation. The certificates did not represent an offset against clearing or degradation of other forests.

The latest development for TZ1 comes after it announced last month that it had been appointed as a global provider of registry services to the voluntary carbon market.

NZPA WGT mjd