Recent reports and analyses have demonstrated the unsustainable upward trajectory of landclearing rates in Queensland.

The Vegetation Management (Reinstatement) and other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 was introduced on 17 March by Deputy Premier The Hon Jackie Trad MP to address the escalating consequences of such high rates of vegetation loss while still allowing for productive and sustainable land use. 

This Bill is important to protect Queensland’s ecosystems and wildlife because it:

• reinstates the protection of high value regrowth on freehold and indigenous land;
• removes provisions which permit clearing applications for high value agriculture and irrigated agriculture;
• broadens protection of riparian vegetation, especially in the Great Barrier Reef catchments of Burnett Mary, Eastern Cape York and Fitzroy Great Barrier Reef;
• reinstates the application of the riverine protection permit framework to the destruction of vegetation in a watercourse, lake or spring; and
• reinstates a broader requirement for environmental offsets to be required for any residual impact, not just ‘significant’ impacts as is currently provided for in offsets legislation (and has led to only 1 offset being registered for vegetation impacts since 2014).

See an update on the status of the bill and some actions you can do to help ensure it is passed here