The NSW Government has drafted legislation that will weaken protection for biodiversity in our state.
The titles of the legislation - Biodiversity Conservation Bil andLocal Land Services Amendment Bill - are misleading and obscure their true purpose.
The bills will actually allow increased damage to the natural environment through less-regulated land-clearing.
The bills will remove a legal requirement that land clearing should ‘maintain or improve’ biodiversity, and will facilitate widespread destruction of native vegetation in both country and urban areas.
Nature will pay the bill for this ill-conceived legislation.
In 2014 the 10/50 Clearing Code of Practice was introduced to allow residents to remove vegetation to protect their homes from bushfires. It was so widely abused by landholders clearing vegetation for other purposes that the code had to be modified only two months later.
Government data shows the state’s farmers have lopped paddock trees at an accelerating rate in the past 18 months even before a new land-clearing law eases controls further.
One of the key changes in the draft bills is the expansion of the use of self-assessable codes – these will allow land-holders to clear trees more freely, with less supervision.
Often these paddock trees will include old trees with hollows that provide shelter and nest sites essential to birds such as owls and parrots, and many other animals.
They are ‘nature’s boarding houses’. The ‘offset’ plantings proposed in the bills won’t provide hollows for many, many years.
Our Society does not want to see another vegetation-clearing fiasco in our leafy neighbourhood, or in the rest of the state.
We have taken a symbolic slice of wood (salvaged from a tree removed under the 10/50 Code) to Oatley MP Mark Coure’s office to express our concern.
Written on the wood (pictured) was the message: ‘‘We ask that you urgently withdraw the draft NSW Biodiversity legislation & act to ensure strong laws to protect our wildlife, amenity, soils & climate. Gymea Biodiversity Review Community. We encourage residents who are concerned by the draft legislation, to contact their local Member of Parliament.”
Details: standupfornature.org.au
- Elizabeth Cameron Secretary, Oatley Flora & Fauna Conservation Society Inc.