Local Biodiversity Strategy: - Shire of Kalamunda

• The policy should refer to all vegetation not just trees, this will align it with
clause 5.19 in the Local Planning Scheme No. 3 and State legislation;
• The policy should relate only to locally endemic vegetation;
• The policy should align with the EPA’s broad principles for protection of
terrestrial vegetation and flora which include but are not limited to:
o Maintaining biodiversity at sustainable levels (greater than 30% of the
ecological extent) where possible;
o Conserving biodiversity insitu; and
o Preventing loss of biodiversity (especially ecological communities with
less than 10% of the original extent remaining); and
• The policy should apply to all residents in the Shire as per the State
legislation.
To assist the Shire monitoring, and improve public awareness of vegetation removal
within its boundaries a modification of the standard approval conditions to clearing
permit requirements could be considered. Any clearing operation should be required
to display clearly visible signs with the clearing permit number displayed. This will
enable the Shire and community alike to monitor illegal clearing.
11.5 Amendments to the Local Planning Scheme No. 3
The ability to meet the biodiversity targets will be improved by making some
adjustments to the Local Planning Scheme No. 3.
Amendments could include altering the objectives of the Special Rural Zone to
include protection of the environment. In this way the Forrestfield vegetation
complex and occurrences of DRF and TEC that occur in this zoning have a higher
likelihood of protection.
It may also be prudent to alter the Local Planning Scheme No. 3 to reflect the
requirement for planning approval for all clearance of endemic vegetation. This will
add weight to the current requirements of the Tree Preservation Policy and the
proposed Tree and Vegetation Preservation Policy (refer to Section 11.4.2).
The current Local Planning Scheme could also be strengthened by adding the
requirement for a full ecological assessment for all subdivision and development
applications on rural land. This amendment would be especially important in helping
enable the protection of the rare Forrestfield and Southern River vegetation
complexes on land zoned Special Rural. It would also add more weight to the
proposed Local Planning Policy for Biodiversity Conservation.
The potential for incorporating Cluster Developments into local planning processes
would ideally be supported through modification to the Local Planning Scheme No. 3.
An example how this possible this is detailed in Box 17, which is an abstract from
the City of Swan’s Local Planning Scheme No. 9.
Local Biodiversity Strategy Page 73