HAWKESBURY landowners who have signed biodiversity conservation agreements are concerned for the future of their land following the recent release of the draft Biodiversity Conservation Bill.
Jocelyn Howden, who owns a property in Maroota, said the proposed biodiversity policy package removes some of the state’s long-held environmental protections.
“I think this new Bill is a serious discouragement to people who may have been considering placing their land under a conservation covenant. The only loser here is biodiversity!” she told the Gazette.
Ms Howden’s property is one of five pieces of land that make up the 200-acre Glenorie Wildlife Refuge. It is connected by bush to Maroota Forest and forms a wildlife corridor between Cattai Creek and Little Cattai Creek.
Though the Glenorie Wildlife Refuge was placed under the National Parks and Wildlife Act in 1987, both Ms Howden and one other landowner decided to sign Conservation Agreements with the Office of Environment and Heritage in recent years for “extra protection,” she said.
“The proposed new laws will repeal the Native Vegetation Act 2003 and the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 that will remove the requirement to maintain or improve biodiversity. This will inevitably lead to a decline in bushland and native flora and fauna populations - lots more land clearing, and release millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” she said.
“Some of my land and that of the five other owners in the Refuge has been protected ‘in perpetuity’ by Conservation Agreements - supposedly a binding covenant.
“The parts of the land that are Wildlife Refuges are completely unprotected by the new legislation. They can be terminated at any time. We are worried that even Conservation Agreements may later be able to be sold to offset biodiversity elsewhere where clearing for development (for example) takes place.”
Prue Gargano, who owns nine acres of rainforest near Mount Tomah, is also concerned that the draft Bill puts her biodiversity conservation agreement - which she signed last year - in jeopardy.
“The Minister for the Environment and I signed a binding, in‐perpetuity private conservation agreement that imposed legally enforceable conditions on the title to my property. The stated aim: to protect biodiversity,” Ms Gargano said.
She is concerned the draft bill might change this, and threaten the endangered animals and plants on her property.
“In its review of the current state of the environment, the NSW government laments the accelerating rate at which biodiversity is being lost. It acknowledges also that most successful initiatives are taking place at the level of private conservation covenants. Yet what is it proposing in its Biodiversity Bill? To remove the in‐perpetuity status of these private covenants – the very reason for putting a covenant on your property in the first place! – and in doing so, making the land available to offset environmental damage caused elsewhere by developers,” she said.
“Many hundreds of hours of work have gone into my rainforest. When we bought the property in 2006 there was a banana passionfruit problem, a Wandering Jew problem, and the perimeter was infested with jasmine. But it also had old eucalypts, enormous tree ferns and vines as thick as a thigh winding up lilly pillies and sassafras.”
Ms Gargano’s land is also home to a Greater Glider colony - the largest of the glider species in Australia - which have been placed on the list of vulnerable animals.
“The proposed Biodiversity Bill will do nothing to address this risk. It’s a vaguely worded and poorly prepared document that removes all environmental checks and balances and relies on desk and landowner assessments of the value of any particular piece of land. Scientific rigour? Forget it. Direct regulation is about to be thrown out the window and replaced by a highly flawed market‐based approach that has been shown not to work. Commodifying the environment, therefore. Is this what we want?” she said.
Public submissions can be made on the package until Tuesday, June 28. Information about the draft Bill and how to make submissions can be found at the Office of Environment & Heritage website.
