2015-01-12 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                     12 January 2015


The Environment Levy Policy identifies the assessment criteria for potential land purchases,
including:

•     Biodiversity attributes: preserves and enhances biodiversity;
•     Regional ecosystem attributes: Protects Endangered and ‘Of Concern’ Regional
      Ecosystems, or locally significant ecosystems;
•     Connectivity: Provides connection between core habitat areas;
•     Consolidation: Consolidates and expands core tracts of vegetation;
•     Species protection: Protects rare, threatened and locally significant fauna and fauna
      species;
•     Threat level: There are no other legal conservation protective mechanisms over the land
      currently and the land is under threat from development;
•     Value for money: The land value represents fair market value;
•     Environmental offsetting and rehabilitation potential: Land is already cleared, partly cleared
      or vegetated and is suitable for environmental offsetting purposes;

Whilst the Policy provides an overarching framework, an Environment Levy Guideline would
provide further detail in relation to the acquisition of environmentally significant land. In particular
the guideline will address:
•     How to identify and use any external funding opportunities such as Commonwealth, State
      or private contributions and in-kind programs.
•     The process to determine the appropriate tenure of the land, whether it be environment
      reserve, Council freehold Nature Refuge, National Park, Regional Park with Council as
      trustee, or other tenure.
•     The process for prioritising land for purchase.
•     The assessment and review of the effectiveness of the land acquisition program, for
      example whether Endangered and Of Concern regional Ecosystems are being adequately
      protected or whether wildlife are utilising corridors.
•     How to manage the risks associated with acquisition of land particularly in relation to fire
      management.
•     Mechanisms for reporting on financial management and program implementation.
2.    Support for Voluntary Conservation Agreements
There are currently 19 Voluntary Conservation Agreement (VCA) landholders covering 248ha of
environmentally significant land. The VCA program is a high level protective mechanism that
supports private land holders wishing to conserve their property’s environmental values in
perpetuity by registering a covenant on title over some or all of the property. Similar to the criteria
for acquiring Environmentally Significant Land, potential VCA properties can be considered on
their biodiversity attributes, regional ecosystem attributes, connectivity, consolidation, species
protection and environmental offsetting and rehabilitation potential.
A VCA consists of three documents:
•     The binding covenant
•     The Conservation Agreement
•     An agreed Environment Management Plan

Council implements this by developing a partnership with a landholder through a Voluntary
Conservation Agreement (VCA) and providing financial incentives for environmental works which
form an Environmental Management Plan.




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