Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW)

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Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016
Coat of Arms of New South Wales.svg
Parliament of New South Wales
  • An Act relating to the conservation of biodiversity; and to repeal the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, the Nature Conservation Trust Act 2001 and the animal and plant provisions of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.
Passed by Legislative Council
Passed16 November 2016
Passed by Legislative Assembly
Passed17 November 2016
Royal assent 23 November 2016
Commenced23 November 2016
Legislative history
First chamber: Legislative Council
Bill titleBiodiversity Conservation Bill
Introduced by Niall Blair
First reading 9 November 2016
Second reading 15 November 2016
Third reading 16 November 2016
Second chamber: Legislative Assembly
Bill titleBiodiversity Conservation Bill
Member(s) in charge Mark Speakman
First reading16 November 2016
Second reading17 November 2016
Third reading17 November 2016
Related legislation
Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 , Nature Conservation Trust Act 2001, National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974
Status: Current legislation

The Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act) is a state-based act of parliament in New South Wales (NSW). [1] Its long title is An Act relating to the conservation of biodiversity; and to repeal the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, the Nature Conservation Trust Act 2001 and the animal and plant provisions of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. [2] It supersedes the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 , and commenced on 25 August 2017. [3] [4]

Contents

The purpose of the Act was to effect biodiversity reform in New South Wales, in particular to provide better environmental outcomes and reduce burdensome regulations. [3] [5] The Act lists many more purposes under the rubric of "ecologically sustainable development" than the former Act, and specifically mentions "biodiversity conservation in the context of a changing climate".

As of May 2021 and since mid-2019, the BC Act is administered by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. [6]

Threatened Species Scientific Committee

Division 7 of Part 4 of the BC Act established the Threatened Species Scientific Committee, which can provide advice to declare species, populations, and ecological communities as endangered. [7] Under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, the Scientific Committee has declared various threatened species including the alpine she-oak skink ( Cyclodomorphus praealtus ) and the alpine tree frog ( Litoria verreauxii alpina), [8] while the Scientific Committee has determined "Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub" to be a critically endangered ecological community. [9]

The main functions of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee include: [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nightcap National Park</span> Protected area in New South Wales, Australia

The Nightcap National Park is a national park situated within the Nightcap Range in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. The 8,080-hectare (20,000-acre) park was created in April 1983 and is situated 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Lismore. The park was established following campaigns and blockades against logging at Terania Creek, Grier's Scrub and Mount Nardi between 1979 and 1982. Sections of the Whian Whian state forest were added to it following blockading and campaigning in 1998. The national park is classed by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas as Category II and is part of the Shield Volcano Group of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986 and added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Threatened species</span> IUCN conservation category

A threatened species is any species which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of critical depensation, a mathematical measure of biomass related to population growth rate. This quantitative metric is one method of evaluating the degree of endangerment without direct reference to human activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beecroft Peninsula</span>

Beecroft Peninsula is the northern headland of Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast. On the western and southern sides of the peninsula steep sandstone cliffs rise out of the ocean, up to 91 metres at its southernmost point, Point Perpendicular. White sandy beaches are found along the northern, eastern and southern sides interspersed with numerous intertidal reefs.

<i>Banksia conferta</i> Species of shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to eastern Australia

Banksia conferta, commonly known as the glasshouse banksia, is a species of shrub that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, bark on the trunk, elliptic to egg-shaped leaves arranged in whorls, crowded yellow flowers in a cylindrical spike later forming a relatively large number of follicles.

<i>Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999</i> Environmental law in Australia

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999(Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places. Enacted on 17 July 2000, it established a range of processes to help protect and promote the recovery of threatened species and ecological communities, and preserve significant places from decline. The Act is as of June 2020 administered by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. Lists of threatened species are drawn up under the Act, and these lists, the primary reference to threatened species in Australia, are available online through the Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT).

An endangered species recovery plan, also known as a species recovery plan, species action plan, species conservation action, or simply recovery plan, is a document describing the current status, threats and intended methods for increasing rare and endangered species population sizes. Recovery plans act as a foundation from which to build a conservation effort to preserve animals which are under threat of extinction. More than 320 species have died out and the world is continuing a rate of 1 species becoming extinct every two years. Climate change is also linked to several issues relating to extinct species and animals' quality of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western barred bandicoot</span> Species of marsupial

The Western barred bandicoot, also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot or the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.

<i>Banksia anatona</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae native to Western Australia

Banksia anatona, commonly known as the cactus dryandra, is a flowering plant in the family, Proteaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a tall, spindly shrub with unusually large fruiting follicles. It is only known from a single location and has been classified as Critically Endangered nationally under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The only known population is in danger of extinction from dieback disease.

Assemblages of plants and invertebrate animals of tumulus springs of the Swan Coastal Plain are ecological communities in Western Australia. They have been managed under a number of other, similar names, including Mound springs of the Swan Coastal Plain and Communities of Tumulus Springs . The tumulus mounds were common to a narrow range of groundwater discharge at the boundary of 'bassendean sand' and 'guildford clay', along the edge of the Gnangara Mound aquifer. The communities are critically endangered.

<i>Threatened Species Protection Act 1995</i> Act of the Parliament of Tasmania, Australia

The Threatened Species Protection Act 1995, is an act of the Parliament of Tasmania that provides the statute relating to conservation of flora and fauna. Its long title is An Act to provide for the protection and management of threatened native flora and fauna and to enable and promote the conservation of native flora and fauna. It received the royal assent on 14 November 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest</span> Critically endangered forest in Australia

The Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest (STIF) is a wet sclerophyll forest community of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is typically found in the Inner West and Northern region of Sydney. It is also among the three of these plant communities which have been classified as Endangered, under the New South Wales government's Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, with only around 0.5% of its original pre-settlement range remaining.

<i>Grevillea caleyi</i> Species of shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to Australia

Grevillea caleyi, also known as Caley's grevillea, is a critically endangered species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to a restricted area around the Terrey Hills and Belrose area in New South Wales. It is an open, spreading shrub, growing up to 4 m (13 ft) tall with deeply divided leaves with linear lobes, and fawn flowers with a maroon to red style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Littoral Rainforests of New South Wales</span>

The Littoral Rainforests of New South Wales is a group of fragmented and endangered ecological communities found by the coast in eastern Australia. Much of this seaside form has been destroyed by mining, tourist development or housing. It is threatened by extinction in the near future. 90% of the 433 sites are less than ten hectares in size. Littoral rainforest amounts to 0.6% of the rainforests in New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark Forest</span>

The Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark Forest (CRCIF) is a scattered, dry sclerophyll, open-forest to low woodland and scrubland which occurs predominantly in the Cumberland subregion of the Sydney basin bioregion, between Castlereagh and Holsworthy, as well as around the headwaters of the Cooks River. The Cooks River Clay Plain Scrub Forest is a component of this ecological community, though both belong to a larger occurring community called the Temperate Eucalyptus fibrosa/Melaleuca decora woodland.

<i>Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995</i> Act of parliament in New South Wales

The Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act) was enacted by the Parliament of New South Wales in 1995 to protect threatened species, populations and ecological communities in NSW. In 2016 it was replaced by the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. These acts form the basis and the mechanisms in NSW by which species, populations and ecological communities are declared endangered, vulnerable or critically endangered, and under which people and corporations are prosecuted for destruction of habitat sheltering such species, populations or communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limeburners Creek National Park</span> Protected area in New South Wales, Australia

Limeburners Creek National Park is a protected national park on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The 91.2 km national park is located 5 km (3.1 mi) to the north of Port Macquarie and exists across both the Kempsey Shire and Port Macquarie-Hastings Council local government areas, but is chiefly managed by National Parks and Wildlife Service. The area was originally erected as a nature reserve but this reservation was revoked when it became formally recognised as a national park in 2010 under the National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974). Many threatened ecological habitats and species of fauna and flora are found within this park, alongside several heritage sites of cultural significance, particularly to the local Birpai and Dunghutti people upon whose land the park exists. The protected status of this national park is largely owing to the ecological and cultural value of the area, in addition to the value of the ecosystems to further scientific research.

The Weeping Myall Woodlands is an endangered ecological community, under the EPBC Act of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is found in inland Queensland and inland New South Wales, on alluvial plains west of the Great Dividing Range. It takes its name from Acacia pendula, the weeping myall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland</span> Endangered ecological community

The Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland is a grassy woodland community situated in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. It was listed in May 2015 as critically endangered under Australia's national environment law. The Warkworth Sands Woodland of the Hunter Valley, situated in the area, was gazetted as an endangered ecological community in New South Wales on 13 December 2002 under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and now under the Biodiversity Act of 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub</span> Indigenous woodland community in Sydney, Australia

The Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, which also incorporates Sydney Coastal Heaths, is a remnant sclerophyll scrubland and heathland that is found in the eastern and southern regions of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as and endangered vegetation community and as 'critically endangered' under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub is found on ancient, nutrient poor sands either on dunes or on promontories. Sydney coastal heaths are a scrubby heathland found on exposed coastal sandstone plateau in the south.

References

  1. "Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016". NSW Legislation. NSW Government. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  2. "Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63: Long title". NSW Legislation. NSW Government. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  3. 1 2 "How to navigate the complexities of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016". Eco Logical Australia. 9 April 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  4. "About the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016". NSW Government. Dept of Planning, Industry & the Environment. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  5. "About the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016". NSW Environment, Energy and Science. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  6. 1 2 "NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee". NSW Environment, Energy and Science. Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (NSW). Retrieved 15 May 2021. CC-BY icon.svg Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
  7. "Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (As at 15 May 2020 - Act 63 of 2016)". Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). 25 March 2021.
  8. Scientific Committee. 2016. Index to NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee: Index to Final Determinations – 1996 –2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018
  9. Scientific Committee. 2016.Preliminary Determination: Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub. Retrieved 1 September 2018.