EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

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

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

List of Key Threatening Processes Amendment (Fire regimes that cause declines in biodiversity (17)) Instrument 2022

Background

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Act) provides for the protection of the environment and conservation of biodiversity, including the protection and conservation of threatened species.

Subsection 183(1) of the Act provides that the Minister must, by legislative instrument, establish a list of key threatening processes (List) that are key threatening processes.

Paragraph 184(a) of the Act relevantly provides that the Minister may, by legislative instrument, amend the List referred to in section 183 by including items within the List in accordance with Subdivision AA.

‘Fire regimes that cause declines in biodiversity’ being included in the List met the criteria for listing in the key threatening process category under the Act.

Purpose of Instrument

The purpose of this Instrument is to amend the List by:

• Including ‘Fire regimes that cause declines in biodiversity’ as a key threatening process in the List.

This process is considered a threatening process as it threatens, or may threaten, the survival, abundance or evolutionary development of a native species or ecological community.

Subsection 188(1) of the Act provides that the Minister must not add a threatening process on the List unless satisfied it is eligible to be treated as a key threatening process.

Subsection 188(4) of the Act provides that a threatening process is eligible to be treated as a key threatening process if:

1)      it could cause a native species or an ecological community to become eligible for listing in any category, other than conservation dependent; or

2)      it could cause a listed threatened species or a listed threatened ecological community to become eligible to be listed in another category representing a higher degree of endangerment; or

3)      it adversely affects 2 or more listed threatened species (other than conservation dependent species) or 2 or more listed threatened ecological communities.

The advice of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (Committee) is that ‘Fire regimes that cause declines in biodiversity’ fulfils all three of the above criteria.

The Minister was satisfied that the requisite criteria was met for including ‘Fire regimes that cause declines in biodiversity’ as a key threatening process in the List.

Consultation

The process for making amendments to the List to include an item is set out in Part 13, Division 1, Subdivision AA of the Act. Consultation was undertaken before the Instrument was made, in accordance with the processes outlined in Part 13, Division 1, Subdivision AA of the Act.

Notice of the proposed amendment and a consultation document was made available for public comment for a minimum of 30 business days as required by subsection 194M(3). Any public comments received that were relevant to the key threatening process were considered by the Committee as part of the assessment process.

The Committee prepared a written assessment of whether the nominated key threatening process was eligible for inclusion in the List. They assessed ‘Fire regimes that cause declines in biodiversity’ as eligible for inclusion as a key threatening process in the List.

In making this Instrument, the Minister considered the Committee’s written assessment and any comments received during the consultation period in accordance with Part 13, Division 1, Subdivision AA of the Act.

This Instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003 and commences the day after registration.

Authority: section 183 and paragraph 184(a) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.