An Act relating to the conservation and sustainable management of native vegetation and the clearing of land; to amend the Soil Conservation Act 1938 and certain other Acts; to repeal State Environmental Planning Policy No 46—Protection and Management of Native Vegetation; and for related purposes.
This Act is the Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997.
This Act commences on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation.
The objects of this Act are:
(a) to provide for the conservation and management of native vegetation on a regional basis, and
(b) to encourage and promote native vegetation management in the social, economic and environmental interests of the State, and
(c) to protect native vegetation of high conservation value, and
(d) to improve the condition of existing native vegetation, and
(e) to encourage the revegetation of land, and the rehabilitation of land, with appropriate native vegetation, and
(f) to prevent the inappropriate clearing of vegetation, and
(g) to promote the significance of native vegetation,
in accordance with the principles of ecologically sustainable development.
In this Act:
(a) habitat declared under Part 3 of the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, or
(b) habitat declared under Division 3 of Part 7A of the Fisheries Management Act 1994.
Section 6 (2) of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 is as follows:
… ecologically sustainable development requires the effective integration of economic and environmental considerations in decision-making processes. Ecologically sustainable development can be achieved through the implementation of the following principles and programs:
(a) The precautionary principle—namely, that if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to…