EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Instrument under section 194D

(Issued under the Authority of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts)

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act) places certain obligations on the Commonwealth to protect and conserve threatened species. Among these is the obligation to establish and amend lists of threatened species, threatened ecological communities and key threatening processes.

Section 194D of the Act provides for the Minister to determine one or more conservation themes that the Minister considers should be given priority in relation to an assessment period. Subsection 194D(3) of the Act provides for the Minister to request advice from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee), established under section 502 of the Act, and have regard to that advice when determining a conservation theme.

The purpose of this instrument is to establish “Species and ecological communities of heathlands and mallee woodlands” and “Terrestrial, estuarine and near-shore environments of Australia’s coasts” as the conservation themes to be given priority for the assessment period commencing 1 October 2010. These themes were recommended to the Minister by the Committee, which considered that terrestrial, estuarine and near-shore ecosystems are vulnerable to ongoing development pressures, and that all of these ecosystems will be potentially impacted upon by climate change. The Minister agreed that prioritisation consistent with these themes would be warranted.

The instrument commenced on the day after it was registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments. Section 42 of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 does not apply to this Instrument.