NSW state election 2015: Extend native vegetation laws, WWF says

Koala in Bradbury on Sydney's south-western edge. Photo: Cambelltown Advertiser

Pressure is mounting on the Baird government to support the retention of key elements of anti land-clearing laws, with claims the Native Vegetation Act is sparing more than 100,000 native animals a year.

A report by WWF-Australia estimates land clearing for agriculture alone killed some 330,000 native animals a year on average between 1988 and 2005. That number dropped by 116,000 after the act came into force in 2005.

"The act is working, it's not broken," Martin Taylor, a WWF ecologist, said. "The only fixing it needs is that it should have a broader application."

Land-clearing restrictions should be extended to apply to all activities disturbing native habitat, such as infrastructure works, coal mining and urban sprawl, Dr Taylor said.

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The controls "should fall on everybody regardless of what the purpose" of land clearing is, he said.

The Sydney Basin, for instance, has some 1900 koalas under limited protection, with about 300 of the marsupials resident near Campbelltown one of the areas with rapid housing growth.

The Baird government is expected to announce plans to revise the existing land-clearing laws before the March 28 election. It is understood the Liberal-Nationals coalition will adopt many of the recommendations of an independent panel that reviewed the state's biodiversity legislation.

The panel's report, released late last year, called for the repeal of the native vegetation and threatened species acts, replacing them with a new biodiversity conservation law.

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NSW state election 2015: Extend native vegetation laws, WWF says