Image:  Regent Honeyeater – critically endangered in NSW.  Photo: ABC

Late last year the government voted to scrap land-clearing protections, paving the way for bushland to be bulldozed across the state. One of the ways they tried to justify these laws was through a new set of biodiversity offsetting rules.

NCC has recently released its report ‘Paradise Lost’: The weakening and widening of NSW biodiversity offsetting schemes, 2005-2016. The report shows that, far from ensuring no loss in biodiversity, offsetting rules are pushing the endangered plants and animals they’re supposed to protect closer to extinction.

The full codes and regulations that underpin the new laws, including all the details about this new biodiversity offsetting scheme, are going to be released any day now. WEPA is staying tuned for the important submission period, where we can have our say on these news details.