Re.  Review of the Nature Conservation Act

Friends of Grasslands (FOG) is a community group dedicated to the conservation of natural temperate grassy ecosystems in south-eastern Australia. FOG advocates, educates and advises on matters to do with the conservation of native grassy ecosystems, and carries out surveys and other on-ground work. FOG is based in Canberra and its members include professional scientists, landowners, land managers and interested members of the public.

Friends of Grasslands have assisted with the preparation of the paper on the Review of the Nature Conservation Act submitted by the Conservation Council of the ACT. FOG endorses the submission. We have prepared this submission to provide direct responses to the questions in the discussion paper, with reference to our particular concerns about grassy ecosystem protection and management. Recommendations that are included in the Conservation Council submission are not repeated in this document.

We note, and are concerned, that the implementation of the NC Act provisions is limited by current resources and urge consideration of how resources can be expanded by using other resource bases, including the Nature Repair Market. Of concern is the inability to create and resource additional reserves where warranted, by size or importance of the areas. Consequently, we urge the Nature Conservation Act to provide for the protection and conservation management through a Biodiversity Network of areas outside the reserve system, as advocated by the Conservation Council and Friends of Grasslands. [1]

Responses to initial questions in discussion paper  

1.       Are the objects of the NC Act still valid and relevant?

The NC Act fails to recognise requirements for the protection of off reserve conservation areas. There needs to be full consideration of these areas, in terms of actions and direct links to ‘conservation areas’ identified in the district plans (noting that the term ‘conservation areas’ are not defined in the district plans and at present the maps do not identify conservation areas outside the reserve system).

Section 6.2.a.i states that the main object of the Act by “protecting, conserving, enhancing, restoring and improving nature conservation” for “native ... animals...”. However, the definition of an ‘animal’ used in the current Act does not include many species of native fish and invertebrates.

• Include all species of native fish and invertebrates in the definition of native animals.

2.       Has the NC Act achieved its objectives in the past decade?

We believe the findings of the 2023 ACT State of the Environment report adequately address this question.

3.        How could the NC Act best support national and international commitments, including in achieving climate change and nature positive goals?

Protection and management of off reserve sites of conservation importance is essential to support national and international commitments. This includes protecting areas containing threatened species habitat, threatened ecosystems, and ecological communities of which less than 30% remain, regardless of tenure.

• Protect these areas against threatening processes, especially urban development and disturbance.
• Apply appropriate ecological restoration techniques to increase areas containing these ecological matters.

4.       What changes are needed to ensure the NC Act provides a best practice, evidence-based and science driven approach?

• Ensure on-ground staff are well trained, skilled and resourced to undertake high quality management and protection; ensuring existing areas are retained and not degraded. 
• Ensure alignment of programs affecting conservation areas and integrate implementation of policies.
• Streamline the NC Act with other key environment and planning legislation that has biodiversity implications.

Nature Conservation Act compliance and enforcement

How can the NC Act best support the protection of biodiversity in the ACT?

We support the following points identified in the discussion paper:

• Undertake a thorough review of compliance and enforcement provisions. This includes offence provisions and associated penalties, powers of conservation officers and other authorised persons, and how we prohibit activities in our reserves/national parks.
• Align penalties with other jurisdictions and ensure that penalties are commensurate with the offence.
• Review existing offences and provide infringements for breaches under this section of the NC Act.

Additional recommendation

• Compliance and support to achieve compliance is required for all conservation areas, on or off-reserve.

The ACT’s reserve system

How can provisions and processes for reserve declaration and management be improved?

Many remnants of threatened communities, threatened species habitat as well as other poorly represented ecological communities occur outside the reserve system, on unleased land (including areas managed outside EPSDD, such as ACT Historic Places, horse paddocks, roadsides, easements) and leased urban and rural land.

Recommendations

• Include a new category that defines and identifies requirements for off-reserve conservation areas in the Act, providing legislation for their protection and management similar to nature reserves.
• These areas must be protected in-perpetuity, including quarantining these areas from development or disturbance.
• Complementary management and land uses may continue in these areas (c.f. OECMs), but in-perpetuity protection should be the primary objective.
• Which Act such designation sits is of lesser concern to FOG, as long as off-reserve conservation areas are protected and consistently interpreted and implemented in all relevant and impacted Acts.

Environmental Offsets

How can we best ensure environmental offsets achieve gains for the environment, in line with Nature Positive Goals?

We support the following points identified in the discussion paper:

• The ACT’s Parks and Conservation Service (PCS) who manage environmental offsets must have the power under the NC Act to enforce offset conditions.
• While we do not endorse the use of offsets we recognise that if applied, environmental offsets for ACT protected matters as well as MNES must be included.

Additional recommendations

• Offsets should only be applied as a last option.
• Ensure transparency in regard to offset implementation and apply a more strategic approach to how offset funds are utilised.
• No existing designated nature reserves should be identified as offsets, as has occurred at Kinlyside Nature Reserve and Kama Nature Reserve.
• Offsets should be applied on rural land, maintained under agreement with the leaseholder enabling compatible production and including stewardship payments for restoration and loss of income.

Should the ACT Offset Policy sit under the NC Act or the Planning Act 2023??

• It is essential that the Environmental Offsets policy be reviewed, especially if it is included within the NC Act.
• The offsets policy should sit under the NC Act to ensure that compliance is enforceable and enforced.

The Conservator and the Nature Conservation Strategy

How can the Nature Conservation Strategy best enable the government to achieve the stated outcomes of the Act?

• Ensure the Strategy supports and guides the implementation of the Act, ensuring consistency for all conservation areas across all tenures, and providing the opportunity for consistency with other existing strategies and action plans, and the means to identify how to implement the strategies.
• Emphasise the need to improve resilience in the face of climate change and pressures for development, and the functional role of the environment.
• Ensure the Conservator’s advice is independent of government, reported directly to the Environment Minister and the ACT Legislative Assembly.

Conservation on rural, private or leased lands

How can the NC Act encourage and increase private sector investment and participation in delivering biodiversity outcomes??

We support the points identified in the discussion paper:

• Provide guidance and clarity to landholders on how to conserve and improve these assets.
• Provide appropriate incentives to counter loss of production and encourage implementation of management practices on conservation areas under leasehold.
• Strengthen the opportunities for rural lessees to voluntarily protect/conserve ACT protected matters. The provisions allowing enforcement and compliance of LMAs also need to be strengthened.

Additional recommendations

• Encourage investment through a landscape approach, rather than a tenure approach, so that multiple landholders may benefit collectively from resources and advice. Reference to this may be found to this approach undertaken by the Bush Heritage Australia Midlands Conservation Partnership in Tasmania (tasland.org.au/mcp).

We note that the ACT Farmers Association have endorsed the Biodiversity Network in supporting farmers to apply conservation management to  leasehold land.

Enhancing biodiversity through the nature-positive approach

How can the NC Act support restoration at scale?

What are the most important steps to take to align our Act with nature positive outcomes?

Restoration of habitat, biodiversity and function is critical to the resilience and reduction of threats to biodiversity.

We support the following points identified in the discussion paper:

• Include in the NC Act provisions to support restoration of landscapes and ecosystems to enable nature positive outcomes.
• The Act can best support national and international commitments, including nature positive and climate change goals, by aligning with these commitments and goals, and providing mechanisms to resource nature positive outcomes (e.g. through establishment of environmental markets or stewardship programs).
• The revision of the NC Act needs to consider any changes to national legislation moving towards a Nature Positive Act and determine if equivalent changes are possible for the Act.

Additional recommendations

• Consider restoration across the landscape – waterways, land, corridors; to include in the Nature Repair Market, if required, as nature repair across multiple sites either landscapes, catchments or vegetation communities across. This is of particular value for rural land.

Nature Conservation through the lens of climate change

Can the NC Act effectively achieve its objects under a changing climate?

How can the NC Act best enable flexibility to allow for novel approaches to climate adaptation?

We support the following points identified in the discussion paper, especially:

• Provide a climate context to the NC Act and the NC Strategy and embed the need to be actively preparing for and adapting to climate change. For example, a forward-looking Act and Strategy must enable preventative climate impacts such as cool burning, a program to collect seeds for preservation and restoration, including encouraging the implementation of restoration-related industries on rural land.
• The Act needs to consider novel approaches to climate adaptation, e.g. a climate triage approach where resource allocation is prioritised based on risk (immediate risk, in need of immediate attention or beyond help).

Additional recommendations

• The most crucial element is to build up resilience of sites through restoration and functional connectivity.
• The existing role of the natural environment in alleviating climate change effects should be recognised.

Traditional Custodians in Nature Conservation

How can the NC Act best ensure that cultural issues and Indigenous knowledge are reflected in decision-making and in the design and implementation of action plans/management plans?

We support the points identified in the discussion paper: :

• There are some aspects of cultural heritage with natural values that may benefit from protection under the NC Act, such as culturally important species and geological sites.
• Protect and manage cultural values and objects with natural values under the NC Act.

Additional recommendations

• Develop a policy so that Indigenous groups can ensure their voices are heard in a culturally safe manner; enshrine this policy in the NC Act at the same level as the NCS (i.e. as a disallowable instrument). 
• As the traditional custodians of this country the Indigenous nations of the ACT have a unique and critical role in caring for country with cultural connections that must be respected by the ACT Government and the ACT community. Ensure these connections may continue, independent of Government control.
• Support and employ Ngunnawal nations people to facilitate and guide actions and outcomes. Opportunities for training are required, to build up the capabilities of members of the Aboriginal community to facilitate engagement and exchange to ensure genuine partnership.

Data Management and Mapping

How can the NC Act facilitate better data management and sharing?

We support the following points identified in the discussion paper:

• Provide quantitative targets in action plans and improved methods for capturing quantitative information to better track and commit to conservation outcomes as well as allow for robust statistical assessment of trends.
• Prioritise the development of adequate models for assessing and predicting trends under climate change and ensure appropriate data are collected to calibrate and validate those models.
• Align data and targets to national and international reporting commitments to embed conservation ambition in ACT actions and enable robust, streamlined reporting with global visibility.
• Share environmental information and environmental protection data with all relevant Directorates through the same information system to facilitate data sharing and consolidation of spatial information to inform sustainable and sensitive environmental and development planning activities.

Other recommendations

• Ensure transparency of process, providing maps in a timely manner in ACTMapi, provide information online that track conservation commitments and outcomes.
• Ensure information is provided systematically across all relevant directorates to facilitate better independent scrutiny (e.g. for State of Environment Reports).

Investing in Nature Conservation

What financial mechanisms could be included in the NC Act to help fund biodiversity projects in the ACT?

Recommendations

• Offsets must not be viewed as a financial mechanism to help fund biodiversity projects; they should only be used when any other alternatives are not viable.
• Loss of any areas of biodiversity value should require offsetting.
• Ensure all funds are invested in a strategic manner, to achieve long-term biodiversity outcomes.
• Identify ways to attract additional funds, including:

*   Nature repair market funds;

*   Encourage Adopt a Park donations;

*   Seek support from businesses such as landscape supply businesses.

Future proofing nature conservation legislationn

How can nature conservation legislation be more adaptable to address changing conservation triggers and priorities?

We support the following points identified in the discussion paper, particularly:

• The NC Act must enable novel approaches to nature conservation as we are facing challenges that are different to any issues we have dealt with before.
• Futureproofing includes ensuring infrastructure exists to support non-government parties in implementing conservation goals.
• Comprehensive planning of priority sites (not just those on reserve) for conservation is needed.

Additional recommendations

• Conserve the substantial proportion of threatened communities (especially BGW) that are outside the reserve system, including to support farmers who manage many of these areas.
• Improve resilience of species and ecological communities by improving and protecting key corridors.

What is an appropriate timeframe for review of legislation and the plans, strategies etc. that sit beneath it?

Recommendation

• We do not have an opinion on a particular timeframe, although timing of reviews should take into account matters within the Act, plans and strategies that become out of date through significant changes to biodiversity, threats or relevant advances in the implementation of conservation outcomes.

 

Professor Jamie Pittock

President, Friends of Grasslands

1 July 2024

[1] Conservation Council ACT Region and Friends of Grasslands, 2022. Building a Biodiversity Network Across the ACTACT. Accessed via: https://conservationcouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/BRIEFING_BIODIVERSITY-NETWORK-_Final_Version_December.pdf