More recent policies and programs

The Heritage Agreement program started in 1980 from concern about excessive native vegetation clearance in SA’s agricultural region. The program pioneered off-park conservation in Australia. There are now 1,588 Heritage Agreements over 2,831 native vegetation sites ensuring long-term protection of approximately 1 million ha of SA’s original vegetation.

The Native Vegetation Fund is made up of payments by people who have cleared native vegetation and are required to provide a significant environmental benefit offset (Figures 49a and b). This money is then made available through grants to restore, revegetate or protect native vegetation. Offsets can consist of either payment or establishment of on-ground revegetation and protection.

A review undertaken by the Native Vegetation Council of the Significant Environmental Benefit areas identified 95 as high priority for monitoring. A total of 31 were inspected and only 17 found to be fully compliant with the conditions of consent. The reasons why the remaining areas were either non-compliant or partially compliant included:

• revegetation not undertaken or having failed
• fencing not completed
• stock access
• inadequate pest control
• unsigned Heritage Agreements
• the area being of insufficient size.

Ethical, social, technical and governance challenges in the use of offsets are highlighted in a number of research papers. An evaluation of offsets in Australia indicates:

• offsets are not appropriate in some circumstances, for example ‘no-go’ areas
• offsets should be implemented before the clearance to which it relates
• requirement to maintain offsets into perpetuity should be taken into account.

The conclusions in another paper are that offsets will only contribute to no net loss if:

• clearing is restricted to vegetation that is
  • simplified enough so its functions can be restored elsewhere with confidence
  • unlikely to persist and is not practicable to restore irrespective of clearing.
• any temporary loss in habitat between clearing and maturation of an offset, or differences between the habitat lost from clearing and gained through an offset, does not represent significant risk to a species, population or ecosystem process
• there are gains of sufficient magnitude at the offset site to compensate for losses from clearing
• best practice adaptive management is applied to offsets
• offsets are in place for at least the same duration as the impacts from clearing
• there is adequate compliance.

To overcome the challenge of a lack of expertise by proponents to implement offsets, SA has recently introduced changes to allow third party or credit offsets. One such accredited third party provider is Nature Foundation SA who have undertaken a number of projects on behalf of clearance proponents. 

The Native Vegetation Council is an independent body established through the Native Vegetation Act 1991. It monitors the overall condition of SA’s vegetation and makes decisions about a wide range of matters concerning native vegetation in SA.

The Native Vegetation Council's responsibilities include:

• encouraging re-establishment of native vegetation on over-cleared land
• managing the Heritage Agreement Scheme, which encourages protection of native bushland
• funding and encouraging on-ground works that produce a significant environmental benefit (SEB) and maintaining an SEB Register
• funding and encouraging native vegetation management research
• monitoring changes to SA’s native vegetation landscape through the Change Detection Program
• assessing applications and establishing conditions for clearance of native vegetation
• producing an annual report.

The Native Vegetation Council endorsed the Guide to Native Vegetation Regulations on 11 April 2017, which explain the circumstances under which clearing of native vegetation is permitted, such as building new homes, managing farms, upgrading or establishing infrastructure or making recreational trails.

The permitted clearance provisions in the Native Vegetation Act 1991 and the Native Vegetation Regulations 2017 reflect the interaction between the Act and other land management legislation, such as the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016, Mining Act 1971, and Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000.

A number of submissions to the government’s parliamentary inquiry into biodiversity highlighted the interactions between legislation dealing with resources, development and native vegetation. It was noted that, under the current regulatory framework, biodiversity conservation is generally considered separately from, and often as being in competition with, development and economic objectives.

As such, its legislation tends to compete with legislation regulating activities such as change in land use and access to aquatic and underground resources (mineral, petroleum and geothermal energy).

The report from the inquiry quotes leading authority on environmental law, Dr Gerry Bates, as saying:

Biodiversity protection is affected by, and in fact relies on, discretionary exercises of power by virtually every statutory or government authority in Australia; and that responsibility for biodiversity protection is legally divided among, or conferred on, many of these authorities, creating a complex regulatory web that is often uncertain in its application, inefficient in its approach, and ineffectual in adequately protecting biodiversity. Neither the legislation, nor apparently government policy, displays any really coordinated or integrated approach to management of biodiversity; legislative functions appear to have been conferred on government agencies in an ad hoc manner without any clear strategic direction for promoting biodiversity conservation. – Dr Gerry Bates

The Environmental Defenders Office recommended creation of an independent statutory commission to develop and implement integrated biodiversity protection across all decision making.

The Eyre Peninsula NRM Board recommended provisions for biodiversity protection and restoration in landuse planning legislation.

The Environment, Resources and Development Committee made a number of recommendations, including the development of a state planning policy on biodiversity and for regional plans under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 to adequately provide for biodiversity.

Clearance of native vegetation for mining activities is subject to the Native Vegetation Act and Regulations. All operations (other than exploration) involving clearance of native vegetation must be undertaken in accordance with an approved management plan. For exploration, the SA Government publishes annual compliance reports that include information about offsets for clearance and incidents impacting native vegetation.