This report was prepared by the EDO at the request of the IUCN Environmental Law Program.
It is intended to inform the development and implementation of a project to build the environmental law capacity of government and nongovernment organisations in the South Pacific region, to be delivered jointly by the IUCN and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), in collaboration with government and non-government partners throughout the region.
The report provides an overview of the following topics:
environmental issues in the South Pacific;
environmental law and policy in the South Pacific;
key institutions and existing capacity-building programs; and
proposed capacity-building strategies and activities.
The purpose of this guide is to assist Aboriginal people to understand their legal rights and obligations under environmental and natural resource management law.
This guide is written specifically for Aboriginal communities living in NSW, recognising that environmental issues don’t affect everyone in the same way.
The guide may be useful for people from other states but many of the laws referred to in this guide are NSW laws and the law may differ in other states.
It is hoped that this guide will help you to better understand the many complicated laws relating to country, culture and heritage so that you will be in a better position to protect your rights and the environment.
The purpose of this booklet is to help you understand your legal rights
and obligations as a member of a coastal community and assist you in
being an informed and active participant in planning and environmental
decisions.
Since this booklet was published, the NSW Government has amended the
NSW Coastal Protection Act 1979. The amendments created
the NSW Coastal Panel and regulations relating to the types of works
that can be undertaken to protect property from inundation and coastal
erosion (such as temporary or long term protection works).
Climate change has profound implications for biodiversity conservation in
Australia. It will require us to re-evaluate our current approach to conservation,
which will involve consideration of ethical questions such as what to protect and
why. It will require dynamic and responsive tools, and overarching approaches.
This paper analyses the current legal regime at a Federal level in Australia and its
adequacy to protect biodiversity under climate change. The paper was prepared
with the assistance of a number of legal and scientific experts who provided
written feedback on a draft discussion paper, and attended a one-day roundtable.
The first part of the paper outlines the predicted impacts of climate change on
biodiversity and identifies general scientific principles for the protection of
biodiversity under climate change.
The second part of the paper describes and analyses a range of legislative tools in
terms of their efficacy in protecting biodiversity currently, as well as how adaptive
and applicable they will continue to be in the future, in light of climate change.
The paper provides a set of recommendations for legislative and policy reform
necessary for the conservation of biodiversity under climate change.
Climate change has profound implications for biodiversity conservation in NSW. It
will require us to re-evaluate our current approach to conservation, which will
involve consideration of ethical questions such as what to protect and why. It will
require dynamic and responsive tools, and overarching approaches.
This paper analyses the current legal regime in NSW and its adequacy to protect
biodiversity under climate change. The paper was prepared with the assistance of
a number of legal and scientific experts who provided written feedback on a draft
discussion paper, and attended a one-day roundtable.
The first part of the paper outlines the predicted impacts of climate change on
biodiversity and identifies general scientific principles for the protection of
biodiversity under climate change.
The second part of the paper describes and analyses a range of legislative tools in
terms of their efficacy in protecting biodiversity currently, as well as how adaptive
and applicable they will continue to be in the future, in light of climate change.
The paper provides a set of recommendations for legislative and policy reform
necessary for the conservation of biodiversity under climate change.
Australia’s biodiversity cannot be conserved adequately in the public
reserve system.
Public
reserves such as national parks account for a small fraction of all land
in Australia. Without
conservation on private land much of Australia’s biodiversity may
be lost.
This is why government and non-government organisations are working towards encouraging landholders to take steps to conserve some or all of the natural features of their properties. A range of
private conservation mechanisms have been developed in the hope that more of Australia’s
biodiversity can be preserved.
This publication will help you understand the different
private conservation
options available and help you decide which option would be most suitable
for your property
and circumstances.
Hard copies of this publication are also available. To get your free copy, contact us.
The Major Projects Toolkit is a publication designed to assist local
residents and community groups to engage in the process for assessing
and approving major projects under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning
and Assessment Act 1979.
The toolkit comprises a step by step guide to the Part 3A process with
information on opportunities for public participation and ideas for how
to achieve best practice outcomes.
The EDO wishes to acknowledge and thank the City of Sydney for funding
this project.
The publication is available in hard copy free of charge
to all City of Sydney residents.
The EDO's discussion paper, Mining Law in NSW (June 2011), looks at the need to reform the legal framework that regulates mining in our State – with a key focus on coal and coal seam gas (CSG) extraction. The main Acts considered are the NSW Mining Act 1992, Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
The discussion paper identifies key inadequacies with the system across three related areas:
Environmental assessment and planning issues
Community issues
Compliance and enforcement issues
The paper also makes 21 recommendations for legislative change to make the current processes more sustainable, robust, equitable and transparent.
Hard copies of this publication are , or it can be downloaded from this page.
The aim of this Discussion Paper is to highlight some of the
issues we would like to see addressed by comprehensive national climate
change legislation.
We ask the question: if Australia was to introduce
a national Climate Change Act, what should it cover?
A comprehensive
plan to address climate change requires more than just the establishment
of an emissions trading scheme, and it is clear that there are a
number of key elements that should form part of the legislative architecture.
This
Paper by no means presents a definitive list of necessary actions,
rather it identifies ideas for discussion and development.
This booklet is designed to help landowners and forest
communities in the Pacific region that are thinking about participating
in projects for 'reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation'
('REDD').
REDD projects aim to stop the clearing of tropical forests ('deforestation')
that occurs as a result of logging, agriculture, plantations or other
land-use changes, such as mining. It also aims to reduce the 'degradation'
of tropical forests, which occurs when the amount of living plant material
in a forest is reduced, or the forest is damaged. Forest degradation
can occur in a variety of ways, including cutting down certain types
of trees in a forest, removing trees to make roads, or by clearing
small plots for growing food crops. The main aim of REDD is to help
fight global climate change.
The goal of this booklet is to:
provide an introduction to the idea of REDD;
explain the main concepts and practical issues so that Pacific
landowners and forest communities can understand what REDD projects
are all about; and
explain some important legal issues and rights for Pacific landowners
and forest communities to think about if they are interested in
being involved in a REDD project.
The purpose of this booklet is to help you understand your legal rights
and obligations as a landholder and to manage your land in accordance with
environmental and natural resource management law.
The topics covered in this booklet include:
vegetation management
protected plants and animals
bushfire management
water management
development consent
pollution
agricultural chemicals
crops and stock
mining and quarrying
heritage protection
voluntary conservation.
Contact us to receive your copy. The booklet
is free and you can request multiple copies (including boxes of 150)
or download the publication by clicking the link below.
The “State of Planning in NSW” Report analyses the current planning system
based on the experiences of our community clients.
The Report identifies
the pros and cons of the current system and identifies that a significant
number of amendments would be needed to fix the current Act in terms of
improving environmental assessment and community participation.
The Report
identifies 10 key elements for a new planning Act, needed to restore balance,
transparency and accountability to the planning system.
This report was
commissioned by the Total Environment Centre and the Nature Conservation
Council of NSW.
Ticking the Box: Flaws in the Environmental Assessment of Coal Seam Gas Exploration Activities
The coal seam gas (CSG) industry in NSW is expanding rapidly. At the same time, the community is becoming increasingly concerned that the legal regime that regulates the exploration and extraction of coal seam gas does not ensure a thorough environmental assessment of such activities.
This publication argues that the legal process applying to CSG exploration lacks independence and rigour in terms of the assessment of potential environmental impacts. As a result, the Reviews of Environmental Factors (REFs) provided to comply with this process are of poor quality, and often constitute a fairly generic lists of impacts.
The publication outlines the nature of the problem illustrates, through some case studies, the deficiencies in the legal process. In light of these problems, legal reform to the assessment of CSG exploration is necessary.
