EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Instrument under sections 184(1)(a) and (b)

(Issued under the Authority of the Minister for the Environment)

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act) places certain obligations on the Commonwealth to protect and conserve threatened ecological communities.

The purpose of this instrument is to amend the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Act in accordance with paragraph 184(1)(a) of the Act by including in the list in the critically endangered category:

• Natural Damp Grassland of the Victorian Coastal Plains

as recommended by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee), having regard to the definition of critically endangered ecological communities under subsection 182(2) of the Act.

The Committee concluded that the Natural Damp Grassland of the Victorian Coastal Plains ecological community met the criteria specified in Division 7.1 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000, as follows:

• Criterion 1 as critically endangered because its decline in geographic distribution is very severe;
• Criterion 2 as critically endangered because its geographic distribution is very restricted and the nature of its distribution makes it likely that the action of a threatening process could cause it to be lost in the immediate future; and
• Criterion 4 as endangered because the reduction in its integrity across most of its geographic distribution is severe.

On the basis of the assessment and advice of the Committee, I am satisfied that this ecological community is eligible to be included in the critically endangered category. In deciding to include it in the list, I only considered matters that relate to whether the ecological community is eligible to be included in that category, and the effect that including the ecological community in that category could have on the survival of the ecological community.

The Committee recommended the ecological community for inclusion on the Finalised Priority Assessment List for the assessment period commencing 1 October 2010. Consultation on the nomination to amend the list of threatened ecological communities under the Act to include this ecological community was undertaken before the legislative instrument was made in accordance with the process outlined in Part 13, Division 1, Subdivision AA of the Act. A draft conservation advice was placed on public exhibition, and public comments were sought as required by the Act. Parties with relevant expertise were directly consulted regarding their views. All public submissions received were forwarded to me for consideration.

This instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

The instrument commenced on the day after it was registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.