To halt the loss of critical and remnant habitat, relevant regulatory controls should be amended to explicitly prohibit the clearing of critical and remnant habitat and ensure these habitats are permanently protected, with no exceptions for development or land use changes. Regulatory controls should include:
- requiring well-substantiated and enforceable buffer* zones to protect conservation significant species, threatened ecological communities and conservation significant wetlands;
- introducing and regulating a moratorium on clearing within any Local Government Authority (LGA) and Bioregion where native vegetation cover is critically low, combined with the implementation of plans to advance native vegetation cover back to 30% or greater;
- making the EP Act Schedule 5 ‘Principles for clearing native vegetation’ binding statutory requirements;
- reviewing land clearing exemptions that enable piecemeal assessments (e.g., under Schedule 6 of the EP Act), to improve environmental assessments prior to implementation under other statutory provisions (e.g., Forest Products Act 2000, Planning and Development Act 2005, Bush Fires Act 1954, Energy Operators (Powers) Act 1979, Fire and Emergency Services Act 1998, Local Government Act 1995, and any other statutes that may allow clearing of native vegetation without EIA;
- reintroducing and bolstering programs that enable permanent and voluntary protective covenants, setting standards for improvement of vegetation cover in areas where vegetation cover is below 30% of pre-colonisation levels (see Recommendation 8 under 'Support Private and Community Conservation Programs’); and • introducing enforceable standards for protecting wetlands and hydrological regimes, including well substantiated buffers, especially for Ramsar listings.
* Buffers must be context based and will reflect the level of ecological complexity and sensitivity. Buffers to protect against noise, visual impact, dust, ground and surface water impact, all these factors will be different. So too, buffers required to protect Ramsar wetlands, TECs, cultural heritage will vary.