The Baird Government's New Biodiversity Laws Are a "Blueprint for Environmental Destruction"

Earlier today the New South Wales Government released proposals for new native vegetation and biodiversity laws that it says promise to benefit "both farmers and the environment."

If the changes go ahead, two key pieces of NSW's environmental legislation—its Threatened Species Conservation Act and the Native Vegetation Act—will be repealed and replaced with new laws aiming to give farmers more control over conservation of native species on private land.

The reforms will give farmers "the flexibility to make decisions about the land that is their livelihood while helping them protect our environment" and the NSW government says that it will "support farmers by giving them incentives to conserve their land, while encouraging them to remain world leaders in innovative farming practices."

A new Native Vegetation Regulatory Map will classify where the clearing of native vegetation on private farmland can and cannot occur. Its aim is "to efficiently allow farmers to undertake legitimate land clearing and improve agricultural productivity."

The announcement comes at the same time as reports by the Sydney Morning Herald that farmers in NSW are clearing land six times faster than detected by the state government.

Environmental groups, scientists and members of the Greens party have expressed concern over the proposed reforms. In a media statement, Greens NSW MP and Environment Spokesperson Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC has called them a "blueprint for environmental destruction."

She said they will lead to "more land clearing, more habitat loss and will be devastating for biodiversity in this state" and points to similar reforms in Queensland that led to "a doubling of land clearing and the removal of almost 300,000 hectares of bushland, 20 times the size of the Royal National Park in Sydney."

"These changes will be a climate disaster and increased clearing could lead to the release of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide," she said.

New South Wales Nature Conservation Council CEO Kate Smolsko said in a statement that, "Mr Baird is squandering an historic opportunity to develop strong conservation laws to addresses the mounting extinction emergency in NSW. If substantial changes are not made, there is a high risk his Bill will make matters worse, not better."

An online petition asking the Baird Government to reconsider its environmental policy approach has already amassed over 11,000 signatures.

Speaking to VICE this afternoon, ecologist Doctor Christopher Turbill from Western Sydney University also expressed his concern. "Even under the current system, which is supposedly riddled with regulatory red tape, unlawful clearing of remnant vegetation remains a significant threat to the long-term persistence of biodiversity. The current draft legislation will remove key regulatory mechanisms, so it is difficult to see how this will not result in even greater levels of land-clearing.

"There is no doubt that, in combination with other key threats, clearing of vegetation is a fundamental cause of the decline in our native wildlife."

Turbill was also concerned by the government's proposal to incentivise conservation through a biodiversity offsets scheme that farmers could volunteer to participate in. "The key resources required by our declining species of woodland and forest wildlife, such as large hollows in old trees, a complex and diverse understory and continuous large patches of vegetation, are easily removed but very slow and difficult to replace," he said. "So offsetting is not a good way to improve biodiversity. In fact, it could be a key mechanism causing its ongoing overall decline."

VICE reached out to NSW environment minister Mark Speakman for comment but did not receive a response.

Follow Kat on Twitter