AN ENVIRONMENTAL group is worried voluntary conservation agreements signed by landowners will be undercut if a series of recommendations are adopted.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel handed down its final report in December and recommended the state government repeal the Native Vegetation Act 2003.
Landowners with voluntary conservation agreements, as well as Gerroa Environmental Protection Society (GEPS) members and residents gathered at Saddleback Mountain Lookout on Wednesday to express concerns about these changes.
GEPS secretary Howard Jones believed the state government was poised to scrap nature conservation laws that currently protect some of the Illawarra region's most important natural areas, including Seven Mile Beach, Saddleback Mountain rainforests and the Illawarra Escarpment.
"The report provides opportunities that didn't exist before to clear land and to cause biodiversity losses.
"We think this will be a significant backward step.
"No longer is the purpose of biodiversity legislation to improve and maintain, now the new purpose is to balance biodiversity values against social and economic interests.
"The only thing that's protecting for example the native vegetation of this area, or that will be protecting them in the future, are these acts that they're scrapping.
"It'll take what they call a risk-based approach, so there's more self-regulation."
Mr Jones signed a voluntary conservation agreement (VCA) with the state government for his 22.7-hectare rainforest property on Saddleback Mountain almost a decade ago.
Mr Jones said the protest was to raise concerns about the consequences for landholders who have entered into VCAs on their lands.
"The report proposes to enable voluntary conservation agreements to be swapped for biodiversity offsetting agreements.
"This would mean the values of these already conserved lands could be used to offset clearing of vegetation elsewhere, resulting in overall biodiversity losses.
"We are horrified to think that at some time in the future our VCA-protected land in this remarkable rainforest could become a tool to enable vegetation destruction in other areas."
Kiama MP Gareth Ward said the implications of the independent report would be evaluated.
"It's about a balance of the needs of our environment with the need for existing landowners to have the rights to do certain things on their property."
Labor candidate for Kiama Glenn Kolomeitz also attended the protest, saying he stood alongside GEPS in this fight.
The Christian Democratic Party’s Kiama candidate Steve Ryan said they insisted that any environmental policy be fair and balanced.
“We don’t want the environment to be overprotected when potential employment can be created.
“We want sensible stewardship of the environment, and we believe there should be less red tape and confusion for landowners and potential developments.”