Native Vegetation Management - A Framework for Action - Summary

➤
WHAT IS THE
GOVERNMENT DOING
ABOUT NATIVE
VEGETATION?
While the Framework sets a
new standard for future
management, significant work
has occurred over the last 10
years. Our farmers and land
➤
THERE ARE SO
MANY POLICIES,
WHERE DOES THE
FRAMEWORK FIT?
The Framework reflects a
range of Victoria’s
commitments to national
policies, principally:
managers have been at the
forefront of Victoria’s native
vegetation management
efforts. Through the Landcare,
Land for Wildlife, Bushcare
and salinity programs as well
as individual efforts, the rural
community has strongly
supported the
native vegetation
management effort.
• The National Framework for
the Management and
Monitoring of Australia’s
Native Vegetation (ANZECC
1999). The National
Framework provides a
vehicle for the
implementation of the
National Heritage Trust
Partnership Agreement
between the Commonwealth
and the State and Territory
Governments. Its primary
objective is to reverse the
long term decline in the
quality and extent of
Australia’s native vegetation
cover by June 2001.
• The National Strategy for
Ecologically Sustainable
Development, with a goal
that is endorsed by all
Australian governments, of
“development that improves
the total quality of life,
both now and in the future,
in a way that maintains the
ecological processes on
which life depends”
(ESD 1992).
The core objectives of
Ecologically Sustainable
Development (ESD) are:
•To enhance individual and
community well-being and
welfare by following a path
of economic development
that safeguards the welfare
of future generations;
•To provide for equity
within and between
generations; and
More than 86,000 hectares of
native vegetation has been
re-established by landholders
with Government assistance.
Of this 66,000 hectares were
planted to address salinity
problems, and a further
20,000 hectares were planted
through Bushcare, Growing
Victoria’s Greenhouse Sinks
and other programs
•To protect biological
diversity and to maintain
essential ecological
processes and life
support systems.
Victoria has adopted a range
of measures to help protect
native vegetation. These
measures sit within the
legislative framework provided
by the Planning and
Environment Act 1987, Flora
and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988
and the Catchment and Land
Protection Act 1994. The
Framework is one of the State
Policies guiding decisions
through the municipal
planning schemes. Local
Government works closely
with the community in
administering their planning
scheme and delivering results
in a range of conservation and
land protection areas to
ensure ecologically
sustainable development.
Like other State policy
documents such as: Victoria’s
Biodiversity Strategy, Victoria’s
Salinity Management
Framework and Victorian Pest
Management - A Framework for
Action, Victoria’s Native
Vegetation Management – A
Framework for Action, is
reflected in the Catchment
Management Authorities’
Regional Catchment Strategies.
It guides the associated
regional action plans,
particularly the Native
Vegetation Plans which
are a regional expression
of the Framework.
What is Net Gain?
Net Gain is the primary
goal identified for native
vegetation management:
‘A reversal, across the
entire landscape, of the
long-term decline in the
extent and quality of
native vegetation, leading
to a Net Gain’.
Net Gain is the outcome
for native vegetation and
habitat where overall gains
are greater than overall
losses and where individual
losses are avoided where
possible. The losses and
gains are determined by a
combined quality-quantity
measure and over a
specified area and period
of time. Gains may be
either required offsets for
permitted clearing actions
or as a result of landholder
and Government assisted
efforts that are not
associated with clearing.
Achievement of the Net
Gain goal will have
benefits for biodiversity,
land and water quality, and
climate change
amelioration.
The Net Gain approach:
• Has, as a priority, the
avoidance of further
permanent losses in
existing native vegetation
through clearing;
• Recognises that for
native vegetation,
although “natural is
best”, it is possible to
partially recover both
extent and quality by
active intervention and
thus to effect the net
result;
• Identifies a quantitative
approach to the “reverse
the decline” pathway,
allowing us to set
targets and measure
performance,
• At the on-ground level,
expresses the principle
that where losses are
directly permitted
and/or incurred, effort
should be made, at a
minimum, to balance
such losses with
commensurate gains in
some way,
• At the regional level,
facilitates establishment
of a complete picture of
the native vegetation
asset, against which
incremental losses and
emerging issues can be
evaluated, and
• Plays an important part
in assessing ecologically
sustainable
development.
What is a Habitat
Hectare?
The habitat hectare is
a site-based measure of
quality and quantity of
native vegetation.
Native vegetation at a
site is assessed by
comparing it to a
benchmark, which
represents the average
characteristics of a
mature and apparently
long-undisturbed stand
of the same type of
vegetation. This
measure can be
consistently applied
across the State.
For example, one
hectare of unaltered
natural habitat which
is at 100% of its
natural quality will
equal one habitat
hectare. That is, the
quality multiplied by
the quantity. Ten
hectares of this high
quality habitat would
be equivalent to ten
habitat hectares,
and so on.
If an area of natural
habitat had lost 50%
of its quality because
of weed invasion, loss
of understorey or other
means then one
hectare of this land
would be equivalent to
0.5 habitat hectares,
ten hectares would
equivalent to five
habitat hectares,
and so on.