Pushing roads through remnant coastal forest is legal in NSW if undertaken on rural land, as here in Fame Cove. So is clearing for fence lines, gardens, dwellings, dams and stockyards. Landowners do not need a permit to do this, even in endangered ecological communities. If you think that's a problem, write to the Minister for the Environment, Phil Koperberg office[at]koperberg.minister.nsw.gov.au.

23rd November, 2006 -- Media release

Biobanking Bill passes: State Government abandons biodiversity

The community recently had opportunity to comment on the Draft Regional Conservation Plan for the Lower Hunter. The Plan announced the creation of 17,000 ha of new public reserves, (not the 20,000 ha claimed in Government media releases) and foreshadows the addition of another 12,000 hectares of public reserves from private land once "trade-offs" have been finalised.

To see the HCEC submission to the RCP, click here.

Go the the DEC website www.environment.nsw.gov.au and click the link to the new Lower Hunter National Parks on the right to download your own copy of the RCP and see the accompanying map.

A Bill about to be re-introduced into NSW parliament would allow mining companies to use the Threatened Species Conservation Act to mine in protected areas.

The Hunter Community Environment Centre has been tracking the development of the so-called “Biobanking” scheme for over a year, and says that the current draft of the Bill has granted unprecedented favours for the property development and mining industries. The amended Bill has been widely criticised by environmentalists.

Latest Update: February 2008

The Biobanking methodology, Regulatory Impact Statement, report from the secret trial, and scientific peer review of the methodology can be downloaded from the DECC website.

This used to be intact coastal forest, an endangered ecological community and key fauna habitat. This area was cleared in 2005 for the current Fern Bay housing development (bad karma to anyone who buys into it) and the community is outraged at news that the Minister for Planning has just approved another 900 lots... that means tens of more hecatres of endangered coastal forest at Fern Bay lost to urban landclearing. If you're angry, let him know... CALL Frank Sartor (02) 9228 4700

The Threatened Species Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Bill 2006 is a disaster for NSW biodiversity. See below for a short summary of the problems with the Bill. Check out the DEC website www.environment.nsw.gov.au for further details on the proposals, and NSW parliament www.parliament.nsw.gov.au to download a copy of the Bill. HCEC is opposed to the biobanking scheme in its current form because (and these are just the big ones):

1. it does not protect high conservation value areas from urban landclearing and development
2. it does not provide protection for offset sites in perpetuity
3. it does not require all development to pass a test to maintain or improve biodiversity
4. it will not legislate the fundamental principles that should control offsetting, for example, that offsets must only be used if it can be demonstrated that impacts cannot be avoided.
5. it does not provide for any public exhibition and consultation over biobanking agreements or statements
6. it allows developers to pay money in order to satisfy their biodiversity assessment and protection responsibilities.

Private property ownership does not confer ownership of the complex life systems that are supported on that property, just as it doesn't confer ownership of the minerals beneath or the air above. Protection of biodiversity values on provate land is a public interest matter, and has been too long neglected.

This was, until recently, Leard State Forest. Soon it will be a hole in the ground. We continue to lose huge tracts of native vegetation and wildlife habitat to the mining industry, as well as to the Pacific Highway upgrades and the development industry. This photo was taken by Ron and Joyce Webster. The clearing of 200 ha of this forest for the Boggabri coal project was approved before the enactment of the Threatened Species Conservation Act in 1995, and the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act in 1999, and yet the State Government allowed this outdated approval to remain in force.

The community is still waiting for real protection to be provided to the outstanding River Red Gum forests that line the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. The State Government abandoned plans to conduct a Western Regional Assessment in the Riverina two years ago, and very little has happened since. In the forests of the Riverina, few controls are exercised on logging operations in forests on private and public land, and a recent community audit of operations there discovered clearfells right along the river. NSW legislation allows loggers to exploit River Red Gums along the Murray River and sell them in Victoria for cheap products such as garden woodchips, firewood and railway sleepers.

The NSW Department of Environment and Conservation’s (DEC) Environment Protection and Regulatory Division (EPRD) is currently engaged in a process to implement a biodiversity offset scheme – termed “Biodiversity Banking” -- that seeks to address the impacts of “our expanding urban footprint on biodiversity values” by creating “new opportunities for private sector conservation management of land”. The scheme forms part of the Government’s recent Threatened Species Amendment package and is set to be trialled in the Lower Hunter. These amendments, introduced late 2004, opened the way for a carrot and stick approach to threatened species protection in NSW. The first biobanking working paper currently exhibited by DEC cited the destruction of Ravensworth State Forest to make way for Mt Owen and trade-off on Wallarah Peninsula as successful examples... and the more recent working paper cited the HEZ scandal in which an existing National Park was drawn into the boundaries of the development area and claimed as an offset... hmmm