EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Instrument under section 184(1)(a)
(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 ecological communities.
The purpose of this instrument is to amend the list of threatened ecological communities under the Act in accordance with section 184(1)(a) of the Act by including in the list in the endangered category:
- Weeping Myall Woodlands
as recommended by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee), having regard to the definition of endangered ecological communities in s182 of the Act.
The Committee concluded that the Weeping Myall Woodlands ecological community met the criteria specified in Division 7.1 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000, as follows:
- Criterion 1 as endangered because its decline in geographic distribution is severe.
On the basis of the advice of the Committee, I am satisfied that this ecological community is eligible to be included in the 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, or the effect that including the ecological community in that category could have on the survival of the ecological community.
A general description of the ecological community is included in the Instrument. However, a detailed description can be found in the Committee’s listing advice on the Departments website at www.environment.gov.au/epbc
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. The nomination 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.
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.