MEDIA RELEASE
13 September 2024 

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, has called on the NSW Government to act on its commitment to stop the runaway land clearing that is continuing to decimate NSW bush. 

NSW remains in the midst of an extinction crisis which will continue to gather pace until the root cause – widespread and unregulated destruction of our habitat encouraged by the former government – is addressed.   

The latest vegetation clearing data shows that clearing continues to devastate large swathes of habitat every year. In NSW, an equivalent of 300 times the Sydney CBD is cleared annually, or 570 football fields per day.  

The annual Statewide Land and Tree Study (SLATS) data released today shows, yet again, a shocking amount of habitat was cleared across the state, taking the average to 84,000 hectares of native vegetation (defined as trees, shrubs or woody vines, or understory and groundcover plants that have been relatively undisturbed since 1990[1]) being cleared every year for the past five years.  

Habitat clearing is, alongside climate change, the most significant threat to species in NSW[2], the worst ranked state in the country for protecting and restoring trees.  

Statements attributable to NCC Chief Executive Officer, Jacqui Mumford: 

“These new figures still show the urgent need for reform. Every day of inaction means more species are at an ever-growing risk of going extinct.” 

“Our nature laws in NSW are broken and unable to protect habitat.” 

“The government has asked the Natural Resources Commission to come up with new options to stop runaway habitat clearing and protect critical species. We are heartened by this process but concerned about the slow timeframe – interim action to protect critical habitat must be taken given the numbers we are seeing today.”[3] 

“Protecting critically endangered ecosystems is urgent and needs to happen yesterday.” 

“The existing Native Vegetation Code is an inappropriate regulatory tool for managing impacts on biodiversity in rural areas. It permits a completely unsustainable amount of clearing without any robust environmental assessment or approval requirements. The new data shows that we don’t know the circumstances under which nearly half of the non-woody vegetation clearing happened in 2022. It may be illegal clearing – we just don’t know.”[4]   

“Clearly the scope of ‘allowable’ vegetation clearing activities is too broad and open to misuse.” 

“We need urgent interim action to immediately protect critically endangered ecosystems. These precious places and the critters than rely on them cannot wait while the scale of reform we require is nowhere to be seen.” 

Statement ends 

Media contact: Amelia Mertha 

E: [email protected] Ph: 0408 036 870 

Note: NCC Political Advocacy Manager, Jaden Harris, is available for comment on request 

References 

[1] As defined in the NSW Vegetation Clearing Report 2021 https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/native-vegetation/landcover-science/2021-nsw-vegetation-clearing-report  

[2] https://www.soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/all-themes/land/native-vegetation#vegcover 

[3] See the Government’s NSW Plan for Nature in response to the review of the BC Act and native vegetation provisions of the local land services act here.  

[4] In 2022, 46.6% of the total of non woody vegetation clearing is unallocated, and 11.8% of woody clearing is unallocated. Unallocated clearing is vegetation clearing for which the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has not been able to identify a formal authorisation or is unable to presume authorised or allowable using visual cues in the imagery. See here 

MEDIA RELEASE
17 July 2024 

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, has today cautiously welcomed the ambitious reform plan set out by the NSW Government in its response to the Henry Review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act. However, the peak group has also expressed frustration at the drawn-out process of fixing NSW’s habitat clearing laws. 

“Right now, biodiversity laws in NSW are incapable of protecting nature, let alone restoring it,” said NCC Chief Executive Officer, Jacqui Mumford. 

“The government’s response indicates openness to heading in the right direction, and some important policy shifts.  

“What we have seen today is a partial win for the environment movement with several reforms we have been asking for secured for implementation. However, the lack of urgency is a real problem.  

“Real reform for runaway habitat clearing is set for beyond 2025. 

“In the past year while the government response has been stuck somewhere in the halls of parliament, NSW will have lost another 95,000 hectares of habitat to runaway habitat clearing*. And now we are being asked to accept another year of delay?” 

All statements attributable to NCC Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford:

Habitat Clearing 

“It is unequivocal that habitat clearing is the greatest threat to species in NSW, and that it also has a significant impact on our emissions.**  

“We know that Australia’s East Coast is a deforestation hotspot of global proportions. Our existing laws are failing to protect nature or support landholders wishing to protect the important habitat on their property.  

“Whilst we cautiously welcome the NSW Government demonstrating openness to going back to the drawing board on the deeply problematic land management framework, it’s disappointing that this crucial work won't even begin until 2025.   

“We know the loopholes that are causing the problems. Every day we wait, up to 260 hectares of habitat are lost. That’s more than 360 soccer fields cleared every day.*  

“Whilst we are frustrated at the long, drawn-out process, there is potential for real change if the NRC review is consultative, solutions focused, engages communities with opportunities in natural capital and biodiversity stewardship, and puts nature first. 

“We are excited to see support for landholders to access emerging natural capital markets, and incentives for sustainable farming, protection and restoration practices for environmental assets.” 

Biodiversity Offsetting  

“We can see there are positive changes to the scheme overall, but we can also see some serious gaps in this response.   

“It is good to see genuine steps to limit offset use, to avoid and minimise impacts, a reduction in harmful practices like discounting and exemptions, a transition to ‘net positive’ offsets and better data and transparency. But we haven’t made it to best practice yet.  

“We want to see indirect offsets totally ruled out, and we want to see offsets absolutely required to be like for like. 

“We need a working offsets scheme that actually prevents unsustainable development from going ahead.”  

Other Biodiversity Conservation Act Reforms 

“It’s very pleasing to see the government commit to developing a Nature Strategy which will set legal targets for conservation and restoration.  

“We welcome that the Biodiversity Conservation Act will be brought into the modern day with new objectives that incorporate international commitments and consider Aboriginal cultural values and traditional knowledge, climate change and cumulative impacts.  

“Better data, transparency and reporting across the board is something we have been calling for.  

“We hope that the acknowledgment in the government response of the intrinsic relationship between biodiversity and Aboriginal culture and the benefits that flow from traditional care for Country, are actualised meaningfully in a reformed Biodiversity Conservation Act. 

“It is essential that the practice of free, prior and informed consent is incorporated across all relevant legislation where there are biodiversity impacts.” 

Statement ends 

Media contact: Anna Greer 

E: [email protected] M: 0493 733 529 PH: (02) 7208 9482  

Note: NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford is available for comment on request  

References 

* An average of ~95 000 ha statewide total per year (2018 – 2021 SLATS data)/ 365 for the hectares per day figure. 

** Habitat clearing is a key threatening process listed in the Biodiversity Conservation Act. The 2021 State of the Environment Report recorded it as the single greatest threat to biodiversity in NSW. The 2023 Independent Review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (the Ken Henry review) identified land clearing as a primary risk to biodiversity. Clearing accounts for about 10% of Australia’s emissions.  

MEDIA RELEASE
June 18, 2024 

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, has today expressed disappointment that the NSW budget has again failed to deliver for nature.  

In the middle of an extinction crisis, funding for ecosystem restoration and threatened species is going backwards.  

NSW habitat is so degraded it can only support 29% of the plants and animals it once did. 1043 plants and animals in NSW are currently listed as at risk of extinction, a 50% increase in 10 years.   

Without significant public investment to grow protected areas and restore degraded ecosystems, many of the ecosystems that make our state so special will simply collapse.  

The NSW Labor Government is spending just 1.61%* of the budget on the environment, which is even less than last year.   

“Labor came into power promising to turn the tide, and yet this is the second year in a row nature funding, as a percentage, has declined,” NCC Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford said. 

“Without a seismic shift in nature investment NSW will see more extinctions and fail to meet our ‘30 by 30’ Global Biodiversity Framework targets.”  

Statements attributable to NCC Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford 

“The nature deficit needs to be addressed by proper investment in NSW’s biodiversity.  

“Whilst Premier Chris Minns loves spruiking the beauty of NSW nature and posting selfies in pretty places, it’s clear biodiversity isn’t a priority for this government.  

“There is a substantial investment in renewables, but NSW needs to do a lot more to turn the biodiversity crisis around. 

“We need to recognise that we have a dual crisis and that spending on renewable infrastructure will not in itself stop extinction and the tragic loss of biodiversity occurring all around us.  

“The number of listed threatened species continues to rise. However not even half (~40%) of these species are being managed under the Saving our Species (SoS) program. Clearly more funding is needed. 

“Taxpayers are again footing the bill for the horrific destruction of our native forests, with no plans to follow Qld, Victoria and Western Australia and save the budget millions of dollars a year by ending native forest logging.”  

Propping up the industrial logging of our native forests is an ongoing financial burden to NSW taxpayers. In the last 3 years, the native hardwood division of Forestry Corporation has lost $44m. NSW remains the only mainland state without a plan to phase out native forest logging, this must change. 

Statement ends 

Background 

*Budget Paper Number 1, General government sector expenses by function shows Environmental Protection receiving $1,964m in 2024-2025, which represents 1.61% of total expenditure v 1.67% in the 2023-24 Budget v 1.73% in the 2022-23 budget.

Media contact: Anna Greer 

E: [email protected] M: 0493 733 529 PH: (02) 7208 9482  

Note: NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford is available for comment on request 

MEDIA RELEASE
May 9, 2024 

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, has today released polling that shows overwhelming support for stronger nature protection laws in NSW.  

The results of this representative sample of over 1000 NSW voters show that habitat clearing and climate change are people’s top concerns, and that 83% of voters want stronger nature protection laws. 

This comes on the back of the NSW Government’s Biodiversity Outlook Report, released on Wednesday, which found that across nearly every indicator, NSW’s biodiversity is in decline. Shockingly, the report predicted that without drastic action half of NSW’s threatened species will be lost.  

“This polling proves that the overwhelming majority of people in NSW want more action taken to protect the places we love,” said Clancy Barnard, spokesperson for Nature Conservation Council NSW, today.  

“This government came to power promising to ‘stop runaway land clearing’ and ‘fix the biodiversity offset scheme’.  

“So far, they have failed to even close the Barilaro-era self-assessment loopholes everyone agrees are a key driver of habitat loss, let alone develop stronger protections that reflect the scale of the extinction and climate crises.   

Statements attributable to NCC Spokesperson Clancy Barnard 

“Changing these nonsense laws, that allow virtually unfettered habitat clearing on freehold land, should be a no-brainer for the government – the laws are currently unfit for purpose, and changing them has broad support. 

“Our existing laws are failing to protect nature or support landholders wishing to protect the important habitat on their property.  

“It also places an unreasonable expectation on landholders - to undertake complex ecological assessments that take trained ecologists days, even with the use of sophisticated technologies.  

“We are calling on Ministers Sharpe and Moriarty, along with Premier Chris Minns, to change these laws and provide support and resources for Local Land Services and the Environment Department to work with landholders to help identify and protect areas ecological significance.  

“Environment minister Penny Sharpe is saying the Minns government has ‘boosted environmental protections to their strongest level yet’. This may be true in relation to the Environmental Protection Authority's expanded powers – but it is certainly not the case for native vegetation legislation. They were strongest under the former Carr government – a NSW Labor legacy that Minns should be embracing.  

“The laws are demonstrably broken, and the voters want change: the stage is now set for Premier Minns to show the community if he is serious about saving Koalas and threatened species. Will he rise to the occasion?” 

“We are urging the NSW government to heed the advice of the experts saying these laws need fixing and steer us out of this biodiversity crisis.” 

Media note: Our polling of a representative sample of NSW residents found: 

•  73% of people say yes to this question: Would you support the NSW Labor Government re-introducing protections against habitat clearing that were scrapped by the previous Government? 
• Only 29% of people answered yes to the question: 'Do you think landholders can and should be trusted to self-assess the ecological value of their land, before clearing it?' 
• Climate change and habitat clearing are the issues of highest concern for NSW residents  
• 80% of those polled were concerned about habitat clearing, including 52% who are extremely or very concerned.  
• More than nine in ten NSW residents want to see the state government doing more to protect and restore nature.  
• Three-quarters of NSW residents feel that government – both state and federal – aren’t doing enough to address environmental issues, and most want to see greater protections for important habitats and ecosystems.  

The vast majority want better laws to protect nature:   

• 83% want stronger laws to protect nature  
• 87% are in favour of meeting 30x30 nature positive targets 
• 52% oppose biodiversity offsets 
• Eight in ten would support banning all development in ecologically important areas. 

Statement ends 

Media contact: Anna Greer 
E: [email protected] M: 0493 733 529 PH: (02) 7208 9482  

Note: NCC Spokesperson Clancy Barnard is available for comment on request 

1 May 2024 

The Alliance for Nature NSW is a coalition of leading environmental organisations working together to achieve the best possible outcomes for habitats and wildlife. Together, we represent 220 member groups or branches and around 250,000 supporters and landholders across the state. Our members and supporters consider improved controls on habitat destruction a high priority and are mobilised toward that goal.  

The Minns Labor Government came to power promising to “stop runaway land clearing” and “fix the biodiversity offset scheme”. The government also committed to doubling koala populations in this state. These critical reforms have been delayed and ignored, with concerning indications that some members of the Minns Cabinet are seeking to water down or simply not enact these election commitments.  

The environmental reputation of the government will be seriously harmed if urgent and effective action is not taken. NSW is in the midst of an extinction crisis which will continue to worsen unless the root cause – the widespread and unregulated destruction of our habitat encouraged by the former government – is addressed.  

Across the state, vegetation has degraded to the point where it can only support 30% of the biodiversity it could before British colonisation. More than half (29 million ha) of all native forest and woodland vegetation in NSW has been lost. 

Habitat clearing is, alongside climate change, the most significant threat to species in NSW, the worst ranked state in the country for protecting and restoring trees.  

Since coming to Government in 2023, around 95 000 ha of land and 100 million trees will have been lost, stripping wildlife of their homes and releasing over 7 million tonnes of carbon each year - more than every household in Sydney. Clearing of native vegetation is fundamentally in conflict with action to achieve a safer climate than the current trajectory predicts.  

Right now, those who stand to profit most have been 'self-assessing' the ecological value of land and then approving its destruction. There are no other scenarios in which a business owner or manager can simply give themselves regulatory approval for land use change and development. This preposterous exemption for landholders must be removed. 

The government has the opportunity to continue NSW Labor’s legacy of delivering environmental reforms. We can re-establish NSW as a leader in conservation and land management and make the most of the new technologies and knowledge that are increasingly recognising the critical role biodiversity plays in the long-term viability of our agricultural system.  

To do this, we urge the Minns government to look past the outdated narrative pushed by now irrelevant members of the Nationals party, and to a future for regional NSW where healthy ecosystems form the basis of flourishing regional economies.  

We are at the precipice of a new way of caring for Country. There is a better way to work with the land and look after people and Country together in NSW – one that values ecological diversity, supports landholders with restoration projects, holds bad actors to account, and empowers communities to protect the places they love. As a matter of urgency, we must reform the regulatory system that is rewarding destructive behavior and disadvantaging the many land stewards wishing to deliver for nature. 

We call for strong regulatory reform with support for landholders to work together across tenures and communities to restore habitats, corridors and landscapes and take advantage of the burgeoning world of biodiversity stewardship models.  

The NSW Government should immediately and publicly commit to measures which actively stem biodiversity loss and put the state on a path to being nature positive, including: 

1. Re-affirming commitments to stop run away land clearing, remove the self-assessment clearing loopholes, make native vegetation management maps statutory and ensure NSW is on a path to have halted and reversed deforestation by 2030. 
2. Immediately stopping Code-based clearing in all areas of vulnerable and endangered ecological communities, as well as critically endangered ecological communities, by expanding Category 2 - sensitive regulated land to include a broader range of sensitive and high conservation value areas. 
3. Committing to giving environmental considerations primacy in decision making under all processes and at all scales – whether it is in relation to ending runaway land clearing across the state or to impacts on wildlife because of individual developments. 
4. Preventing species going extinct, including regional extinctions, supported by a veto on developments that would worsen the state of a species and ecological community. 
5. Embedding enforceable targets that protect, connect, restore and improve biodiversity, informed by comprehensive and accessible data. 
6. Banning cash-for-habitat removal practices and other offset approaches that lead to a net loss of remnant habitat. 
7. Working with conservation groups, First Nations community-controlled organisations, and farming communities to co-design the ways that NSW can ensure ventures into natural capital economies support communities and deliver for nature. 

Statement ends 

Further media statements available upon request.

Media contact: Anna Greer 
E: [email protected] M: 0493 733 529 PH: (02) 7208 9482  

MEDIA RELEASE
April 23^rd 2024 

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, has today criticised the NSW Government for dragging its feet over inadequate regulations that allow unregulated habitat clearing on freehold land. 

A 2020 Parliamentary Inquiry found that habitat clearing laws in NSW would drive koalas to extinction by 2050. Yet since NSW Labor was elected, nothing has changed.   

Not long after the NSW Government took office Ken Henry released his review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act clearly finding it is not protecting biodiversity. We need to hear the government’s response with a commitment to addressing biodiversity loss.  

“A landholder can just tick a box saying there is no threatened species habitat on their land and then start clearing without any oversight,” said Nature Conservation Council NSW CEO Jacqui Mumford. 

“If you speak to any ecologist, they will tell you that without specialist training and knowledge it’s extremely unlikely people will accurately assess an area’s ecological value or be able to identify if endangered species like koalas are present on their land.  

“That means that every day reform is delayed, more koala habitat is destroyed, and these iconic species go further down the path of extinction.”  

Statements attributable to NCC Chief Executive Officer Jacqui Mumford  

“The Henry Review is perfectly clear that the Biodiversity Conservation Act doesn’t do what it set out to do – it doesn’t conserve biodiversity. We need to hear how the government intends to change that. 

“Time and again I’ve voiced the same obvious message – stop the destruction of koala habitat, because koalas need trees. 

“Meanwhile, koala habitat across NSW continues to be destroyed. 

“There is no requirement for an independent ecological assessment by a qualified ecologist on freehold land, before destroying habitat for endangered species such as koalas.  

“Landowners can simply determine that an area is not important for koalas and then bulldoze the lot.  

“This John Barilaro-legacy habitat clearing free-for-all should have been low-hanging fruit for the incoming Labor Government, but Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty is stonewalling attempts to fix it. 

“It’s also extremely concerning how little we know about koala habitat being cleared on freehold land – there is no accurate data due to the ‘self-assessment loophole’ introduced by the former government. 

“One thing we do know is that this regulatory blind spot should have been one of the first things on Labor’s agenda when they took office. 

“Since the rollback of regulations in 2016 habitat clearing rates in NSW tripled. NSW are leaders in deforestation and it’s time we turned that around.”  

Statement ends 

Media contact: Anna Greer 
E: [email protected] M: 0493 733 529 PH: (02) 7208 9482  

Note: NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford is available for comment on request