MEDIA RELEASE
22^nd November 2024 

The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation has today welcomed passage of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Offsets Scheme) Bill 2024 as an important first step in reforming NSW nature laws. 

“We have been calling for reform of the broken scheme for many years, and today we finally have an important first step to deliver better protections for nature.” said NCC Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith.

Statements attributable to NCC Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith:  

“This Bill will finally create legal standards to make it clear that offsets should only be used as a genuine last resort, through the avoid and mitigate hierarchy - this is long overdue.”  

“It will also transition the scheme to achieving ‘net positive’ outcomes for biodiversity, something we urge the government to deliver as soon as possible.” 

“It is very encouraging to see the Government also recognise the need to consider ‘Part 5’ government development under the scheme, as the Minister said: “If the government expects the private sector to abide by biodiversity rules, we should do the same.” 

“We also welcome recognition of the need to reform the ‘serious and irreversible impacts’ provisions as part of the next tranche of work. This must be strengthened to prevent the destruction of irreplicable, high conservation value land. This is a crucial piece of puzzle to achieve nature positive outcomes in NSW.”  

“Despite today's progress, the biodiversity offsets scheme is still deeply flawed. We welcome the Minister’s comments that “There is a lot more work to be done do to get the scheme right. This is just the beginning”.  

“We look forward to working with the government and all sides of politics to rein in habitat clearing and strengthen protections for biodiversity.” 

ENDS 

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
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 

The NSW Government has used its response to the Black Summer bushfires to sneak through new land-clearing laws that will destroy thousands of hectares of forest and woodland. 

The Bushfires Legislation Amendment Bill that passed the Legislative Council last night with the support of the ALP will allow landholders to clear 25m-wide strips of bush all around their property without independent environmental assessment or approval. 

“The 25m land-clearing rule won’t reduce bushfire risk in extreme conditions but it will trash thousands of hectares of prime wildlife habitat,”  Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“This is going to cause a completely unnecessary man-made disaster for wildlife and bushland — it’s about as useful as handing out free water pistols in the face of mega fires.

“If applied across the state, the 25m land-clearing rule could obliterate thousands of hectares of wildlife habitat and kill millions of native animals.

“This measure was not recommended by the Independent Bushfire Inquiry for a very good reason. 

“Experts say it won’t reduce bushfire risk in extreme conditions but it will cause unbelievable environmental harm.

“This is part of the National Party’s radical land-clearing agenda — it is not supported by science or expert opinion.”

The NSW Government is pushing through changes to the Rural Fires Act that will lead to a 50m strip of bushland destruction around thousands of properties across the state.

WWF-Australia has estimated the changes put thousands of hectares of wildlife habitat at risk, including 12,000 hectares of high-quality koala habitat in just four local government areas they examined. [1] 

“These changes are not necessary, they won’t reduce bushfire risk but they will trash thousands of hectares of prime wildlife habitat,” Nature Conservation Council Campaigns Director Brad Smith said.

“The government wants to let landholders clear 25m strips of bushland on their side of the fence without independent environmental assessment of the impacts. 

“That potentially amounts to a 50m strip of bushland destruction around thousands of properties across NSW and the loss of thousands of hectares of vital wildlife habitat, including koala forests.

“This measure is driven by ideology and it is not supported by science or expert opinion.

“These measures were not recommended by the Independent Bushfire Inquiry for a very good reason — they won’t reduce bushfire risk in extreme conditions but they will cause untold environmental damage.

“This is more about unfettered land clearing than bushfire risk management and should be removed from the bill.”

Dr Smith said the Nature Conservation Council supports all the recommendations of the bushfire inquiry and applauds the government for committing to implementing them, but the 25m clearing change was not one of them.

The changes to the Rural Fires Act are included in Bushfires Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 introduced to parliament by Emergency Services Minister David Elliott this week. 

References

[1] Bush and koalas found to be threatened by 'gratuitous' NSW land-clearing plan, The Guardian, 26 October 2020.