The review process

Independent review of biodiversity legislation in New South Wales

In June 2014, the Minister for the Environment appointed the independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel to conduct a comprehensive review of the Native Vegetation Act 2003, Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, Nature Conservation Trust Act 2001 and those parts of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 that relate to native plants and animals and private land conservation.

Final report

The panel presented its final report to the Minister for the Environment on 18 December 2014. The panel made 43 recommendations, proposing an integrated package of reforms to deliver on the NSW Government’s commitments to cut red tape, facilitate sustainable development and conserve biodiversity. The panel’s final report can be viewed in full here.

Terms of reference

Please click here to see the terms of reference for the review.

Consultation

To help inform its review, the panel met with a number of stakeholders, called for public submissions, commissioned input from NSW Farmers and the Environment Liaison Office, received advice from OEH and other government agencies and visited landholders and industry in the Central West, Upper Hunter, Walgett and Cooma-Monaro regions.

Public submissions

Public submissions to the review can be viewed here. A summary of the submissions report can be accessed here.

Background papers

A series of papers on specific issues related to the policy and legislative framework have been prepared by OEH:

• Objects (PDF, 1.5MB)
• Information provisions (PDF, 590KB)
• Conservation action (PDF, 3.1MB)
• Conservation in land-use planning (PDF, 316KB)
• Conservation in development approval processes (PDF, 1.6MB)
• Wildlife management (PDF, 212KB)