Environment Minister Donna Faragher says key recommendations have emerged from a review of the practice of clearing native vegetation in Western Australia.
A four-member committee, chaired by Associate Professor Garry Middle, has been reviewing legislation, administration and policy relating to native vegetation clearing.
"The committee has made a number of recommendations for improving the regulatory framework controlling any clearing of native vegetation in the State, as well as the decision making processes of the agencies responsible for the implementation of that framework," Mrs Faragher said.
"I thank those people and organisations which made submissions to the review committee.
"There were 23 submissions, ranging from conservation groups to industry and government bodies."
The recommendations included:
-risk based assessment of clearing applications and tracking of assessment timeframes to provide more streamlined assessment pathways, greater certainty and timely decisions
-development of a shared database on native vegetation to allow for improved decision making, monitoring and auditing of land clearing by government and inform landowners and the community
-clarification of the role of offsets.
The report has been provided to the Minister's Environmental Stakeholder Advisory Committee which will consider it, and other reviews, in providing advice to the Minister on future legislative reform within the environment portfolio.
It is also publicly available through the Department of Environment and Conservation website: http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/
