Apply for a whole plant licence

This licence allows you to pick protected whole plants and seeds for commercial use, on property you own.

Plants you can pick

A wild harvester licence authorises the harvest of whole plant species from Group 1 Part 2 of Schedule 6.

Monitoring

Wild harvesters must establish monitoring plots to help them monitor harvest sustainability and provide harvest data to their local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office.

Monitoring may be through the provision of accurate geographical coordinates or establishment of a fixed photographic monitoring point.

Evidence of your monitoring program must be submitted to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office, upon completion of the harvesting operation and/or upon the expiration of your licence.

Tagging

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags are required for all species being harvested.

Find out more about tagging and how to apply for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags.

Record keeping

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is required to provide an annual protected plant harvest report to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the ensure the commercial use of protected plant is managed sustainably.

You will need to complete the Harvester/Grower Annual Return Harvest Return Sheet (DOC 197KB) annually, with information for each day of harvesting. This must include:

• the date and site of the harvest
• the number of plants harvested (and their relevant size classes, if appropriate)
• the tag numbers allocated to the plants from the site.

Annual harvest returns must be submitted annually in an electronic format to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office.

No new licences will be granted until all return sheets are submitted.

Conditions

Licences include binding conditions; it's important you understand and meet the Wild Harvester (Whole Plant) Licence Conditions.

Licence cost and duration

$135 for 3 years, including site inspections.

Apply

Licence applications are currently not available online. Contact your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Office for an application form, to submit your application and to obtain further advice.

Applications will be subject to site inspections to verify the availability of species.

Please allow enough time for your application to be assessed. You will be contacted if further information is needed to complete the assessment.

This licence allows you to pick protected plants from naturally occurring stands on land you own and/or on land not owned by you.

Before being granted this licence type you will need to demonstrate a minimum level of experience, equipment and facilities.

Harvest site and stockpile site control procedures must be provided with the licence application.

A forest products licence from the local regional office of the Forestry Corporation of NSW must also be obtained for harvest in state forests.

Types of licences

There are 2 types of approved harvester licence and an accompanying site approval licence.

Sustainable harvest licence

This licence allows you harvest protected plants on land not owned by you from groups 1 and 2 of Part 2 of Schedule 6.

Salvage harvest licence

• Allows you to harvest protected plants, where construction, mining, forestry or infrastructure development will result in their destruction.
• Will only be issued where an approved development has been granted under the Environmental Protection Act 1979.
• Will only permit salvage from the area of an approved plantation currently being harvested for forestry operations.
• Allows you to harvest protected plants from Groups 1, 2 and 3 of Part 2 of Schedule 6.

Site approval licence

• A single approved harvester licence, sustainable and salvage, may cover your harvest operation across multiple sites. As an approved harvester licence holder, you will need to obtain a site approval licence for each salvage or sustainable harvest location before you can harvest anything.
• A site approval licence may be granted for a sustainable harvest or a salvage harvest, but not for both harvest types at a single location.
• Only one site approval licence will be granted for the sustainable harvest of a species at a site in any 5-year period, unless any previous site approvals were below the sustainable harvest level or were not filled. In these cases, additional site approvals may be granted to allow the harvest of the remainder of the sustainable harvest level.
• Written permission is required from the landowner for a site approval licence to be granted.
• Site approval applications may be subject to initial site inspections to verify the availability of species and to random inspections during the licence period.
• Site approval licences are granted for one year only.

Approved harvester licences do not allow you to harvest species from:

• Groups 4 or 5 of Part 2 of Schedule 6
• threatened species
• threatened ecological communities or areas of outstanding biodiversity value unless approved in a salvage situation.

Monitoring

Approved harvesters must establish monitoring plots to help them monitor harvest sustainability and provide harvest data to their local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office. Monitoring may be through the provision of accurate geographical coordinates or establishment of a fixed photographic monitoring point.

Evidence of your monitoring program must be submitted to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office, upon completion of the harvesting operation and/or upon the expiration of your licence.

Tagging

• NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags are required for all species harvested from the wild.
• Find out more about tagging and how to apply for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags.

Record keeping

The National Parks and Wildlife Service is required to provide an annual protected plant harvest report to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the ensure the commercial use of protected plant is managed sustainably.

You will need to complete the Harvester/Grower Annual Return Harvest Return Sheet (DOC 197KB) annually, with information for each day of harvesting. This must include:

• the date and site of the harvest
• the number of plants harvested (and their relevant size classes, if appropriate)
• the tag numbers allocated to the plants from the site.

Annual harvest returns must be submitted annually in an electronic format to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office.

Harvest return sheets must be made available for inspection on request.

Licensees must also maintain records of plants at the stockpile site which detail the location of harvest and the time since harvest.

No new licences will be granted until all return sheets are submitted.

Conditions

Licences include binding conditions. It is important you understand and meet the conditions of your licences.

Example conditions

• Approved harvester sustainable licence conditions
• Approved harvester salvage licence conditions
• Site approval licence conditions

Licence cost and duration

• Approved harvester licence: $175 for 3 years
• Site approval licence: $75 per site per year

Apply

Licence applications are currently not available online.

Contact your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office to request approved harvester and site approval licence application forms.

Email your Approved Harvester Licence Application Form to the Wildlife Team at [email protected]

Once you have obtained your approved harvester licence, find your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office to submit site approval licence applications or obtain further advice.

Applications will be subject to site inspections to verify the availability of species.

Please allow enough time for your application to be assessed. You will be contacted if further information is needed to complete an assessment.

This licence allows you to grow, cultivate and propagate protected and threatened plants for commercial use.

You must be able to demonstrate the primary source of the plant or seed material has been lawfully obtained under another type of plant licence, scientific licence, threatened species licence or other exemption under the Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Plants you can grow

The grower licence allows you to:

• grow species of protected plants in
• grow threatened species; provided you can demonstrate the primary plant, plant material or seed was lawfully obtained under another type of plant licence, scientific licence, threatened species licence or other exemption under the Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Tagging

• Grower tags are required for all species. Tags should include 'plantation grown' wording.
• NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags are required for plants in larger class sizes (see Appendix K of the Whole Plant Sustainable Management Plan), where there is likely to be confusion between grown and wild harvested plants. In this situation, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags must be used instead of grower tags.
• NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags may be purchased where growers are unable to produce their own tags.
• Find out more about tagging and how to apply for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags.

Record keeping

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is required to provide an annual protected plant harvest report to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the ensure the commercial use of protected plant is managed sustainably.

You will need to complete the Harvester/Grower Annual Return Harvest Return Sheet (DOC 197KB) annually, with information for each day of harvesting. This must include:

• the date and site of the harvest
• the number of plants harvested (and their relevant size classes, if appropriate)
• the tag numbers allocated to the plants from the site.

Annual harvest returns must be submitted annually in an electronic format to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service office.

Harvest return sheets must be made available for inspection on request.

Licensees must also maintain records of plants at the stockpile site which detail the location of harvest and the time since harvest.

No new licences will be granted until all return sheets are submitted.

Conditions

Licences include binding conditions. It is important you understand and meet the Grower Licence Conditions.

Licence cost and duration

• $30 for 1 year
• $75 for 3 years
• $100 for 5 years

Apply

Licence applications are currently not available online. Contact your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Office for an application form, to submit your application and to obtain further advice.

Applications will be subject to site inspections to verify the availability of species.

Please allow enough time for your application to be assessed. You will be contacted if further information is needed to complete the assessment.

This licence allows you to pick and sell seeds or spores collected from protected plants in the wild.

If you intend to sell plants you have grown from seed or harvest seed from cultivate plants, you will also need a grower licence.

Seed harvesting, collection, processing and use should be undertaken using best-practice standards outlined in the Florabank Guidelines.

Plants you can pick seed

A seed harvester licence allows you to harvest seed or spores from the wild for species listed in Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act and Part 2 of Schedule 6 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act.

This licence does not allow you to harvest seed or spores from threatened species listed under Schedule 1 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Harvest is not permitted from areas of outstanding biodiversity value (Part 3 of the Biodiversity Conservation Regulation 2017) or threatened ecological communities (Schedule 2 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act) unless approved in a salvage harvest situation.

Individual licences may have limits or restrictions imposed on the species and quantities that may be harvested.

Collection of vegetative material, for example, cuttings or plant divisions, is not permitted under this licence.

Licence cost and duration

$175 for 3 years

Monitoring

Approved harvesters must establish monitoring plots to help them monitor harvest sustainability and provide harvest data to their local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office. Monitoring may be through the provision of accurate geographical coordinates or establishment of a fixed photographic monitoring point.

Evidence of your monitoring program must be submitted to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office, upon completion of the harvesting operation and/or upon the expiration of your licence.

Record keeping

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is required to provide an annual protected plant harvest report to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the ensure the commercial use of protected plant is managed sustainably.

You will need to complete the Harvester/Grower Annual Return Harvest Return Sheet (DOC 197KB) annually, with information for each day of harvesting. This must include:

• the date and site of the harvest
• the number of plants harvested (and their relevant size classes, if appropriate)
• the tag numbers allocated to the plants from the site.

Annual harvest returns must be submitted annually in an electronic format to your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office.

Harvest return sheets must be made available for inspection on request.

Licensees must also maintain records of plants at the stockpile site which detail the location of harvest and the time since harvest.

No new licences will be granted until all return sheets are submitted.

Conditions

Licences include binding conditions. It is important you understand and meet the Seed harvest licence conditions.

Apply

Licence applications are currently not available online. Contact your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Office for an application form, to submit your application and to obtain further advice.

Applications will be subject to site inspections to verify the availability of species.

Please allow enough time for your application to be assessed. You will be contacted if further information is needed to complete the assessment.

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags are required for all whole plant species acquired from the wild under wild harvester or approved harvester licences. Some grower licensees may require NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags for certain species in larger size classes.

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags are produced by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and are prefixed and numbered so that the origin of protected plants can be traced.

Apply for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags currently cost 20 cents each.

Premium NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags are required for grass trees (Xanthorrhoea) over one metre in height and currently cost $5.

Find your local NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service area office to apply for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service tags or obtain further advice on tagging.

Grower tags are required for all Schedule 6, Part 2 whole plant species offered or displayed for retail sale under grower licences.

Grower tags are printed or written by the grower or a professional industry association. The tags must be made of durable material and provide enough information to trace the product to its origin. Suggested details include species botanical name, the term ‘plantation grown’ and the name of the supplier.

When whole protected plants are sold in batches to the wholesale or landscape sectors and it is not practical to tag individual plants, the grower must provide the same information required for a grower tag (for example, species scientific name, ‘plantation grown’ and supplier name) to the buyer.