Managing vegetation clearing - 2008Home | Biodiversity |Conserving Biodiversity | Managing Vegetation Clearing | 2008
Managing Vegetation Clearing Clearing of native vegetation continues to be one of the greatest threats to the maintenance of biodiversity in the Shoalhaven. Vegetation clearing is required throughout the Shoalhaven to accommodate for development and as such Shoalhaven City Council has an important role to play in ensuring that biodiversity is maintained whilst providing land for development. Council does this through individual property assessments associated with Development Applications and through preparing studies and planning instruments such as the Jervis Bay Settlement Strategy and the Shoalhaven Growth Management Strategy which aim to identify land that may have potential for development, environmental purposes and to ensure development is ecologically sustainable. Planning instruments are developed at a number of government levels. Internationally, governments have agreed to implement world-wide strategies, accords and treaties to protect vegetation communities, biodiversity and flora and fauna e.g. Biodiversity Convention, RAMSAR – protection of internationally recognised wetlands. At a national level the Federal Government has developed and implemented strategies and agreements e.g. National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biodiversity, Ecologically Sustainable Development Strategy and National Forest Policy Statement. It is the planning instruments developed by State and Local Governments, which have the greatest impact of vegetation management in the Shoalhaven. These instruments are listed below. Government Strategy
The clearing of vegetation in the Shoalhaven is controlled by a number of legislative instruments. These instruments and acts have been in force since the last SOE. Since 1999/2000 some of the key acts have undergone significant changes including the native Vegetation Conservation Act and the Threatened Species Conservation Act.
This Act replaces the Native Vegetation Conservation Act (NVC Act), 1997. The Act took affect late in 2005. Catchment Management Authorities are responsible for considering applications lodged under the Act. Applications are considered if they meet the ‘maintain or improve’ environmental outcomes test required by Native Vegetation Act 2003. Applications that do not meet the test will not be approved. Any application that does not meet this test, can negotiate with the Catchment Management Authority to use offsets through a property vegetation plan. If offsets, when considered together with the impacts of the proposed clearing, improve or maintain environmental outcomes, approval may be granted. Council has signed a protocol for the implementation of this Act with the CMA to ensure that applications for clearing vegetation are managed in a coordinated and efficient way.
The Act sets a framework for:
This Act controls the clearing of indigenous vegetation and is the responsibility of DIPNR. The Act defines clearing as: (a) cutting down, felling, thinning, logging or removing native vegetation, (b) killing, destroying, poisoning, ringbarking, uprooting or burning native vegetation.
This legislation is aimed at delivering a more streamlined and workable approach to native vegetation management in NSW. The new Act will provide greater flexibility for landholders by enabling them to:
In 2006 Shoalhaven City Council signed a Protocol with the Catchment Management Authority. This Protocol outlines the administrative arrangements for implementation of the Native Vegetation Act 2003. Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995 The Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995 (TSC Act) identifies threatened native plants and animals (with the exception of fish and marine plants) and provides for species recovery and threat abatement programs.
This legislation has been amended. Changes came into force on 31 October 2005. The overall aim of the Act remains the same in ensuring the effective conservation of threatened species across NSW. Consent is still required to kill, harm or pick threatened species and or removing their habitat.
Biodiversity Banking and Offsets Scheme The Biodiversity Banking and Offsets Scheme has now been established to address the loss of biodiversity in NSW. It aims to achieves this by enabling landowners in NSW to establish biobank sites to secure conservation outcomes and by enabling developers to offset impacts of their development on biodiversity values. The Threatened Species Conservation (Biodiversity Banking) Regulation 2008 and the BioBanking Assessment Methodology were gazetted on 11 July 2008. Biobanking is an alternative to the current threatened species assessment of significance process under Section 5A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act). BioBanking does not remove local government’s role in land use planning and development control. It is a voluntary option and does not replace the current process. To participate in BioBanking, developments under Part 4 of the EP&A Act will need to obtain a biobanking statement from DECC. Where a developer presents a valid Biobanking statement a consent authority is not required to take into consideration the likely impact of the development on biodiversity values. Where a developer chooses to use Biobanking, local council’s will be responsible for incorporating the conditions of a biobanking statement into the relevant development consent as part of their role as consent authorities under Part 4 of the EP&A Act. The diagram below demonstrates how the scheme is proposed to operate. More information can be found at the Department of Environment and Climate Change’s website: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/biobanking/infosheet06135.htm
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