The Native Vegetation Act 2003

The Native Vegetation Act 2003, put an end to broadscale landclearing in NSW while providing long-term certainty for farmers when it came into effect on December 1, 2005.

The Native Vegetation Act 2003 sets a framework for:

• ending broadscale clearing unless it improves or maintains environmental outcomes
• encouraging revegetation and rehabilitation of land with native vegetation, and
• rewarding farmers for good land management.

Invasive Native Scrub

Invasive Native Scrub (INS, also known as woody weeds) is encroaching and thickening native trees and shrubs that can contribute to a range of environmental and production problems. Click here for more information on INS.

Property Vegetation Plans

Catchment Management Authorities have been established to administer the new system, which is based on voluntary agreements between landholders and CMAs called Property Vegetation Plans (PVPs). It is the most comprehensive and practically focussed system available in Australia and has the potential to lead to a revolution in the way we manage native vegetation across NSW.

$436 million has been directed to protect and restore landscapes, with at least $120 million of those funds earmarked to assist landholders improve native vegetation through PVPs.

Click here to access information sheets for the Native Vegetation Act 2003.

Clause 28 - Minor clearing of native groundcover

The Clause 28 Policy under the Native Vegetation Regulation 2005 sets out the circumstances in which the short term impact of the minor clearing of native groundcover on land within the Western Catchment Management Authority area is regarded as likely to improve the condition of native vegetation on the land or prevent the long term degradation of native vegetation on the land under the Native Vegetation Act 2003 (Clause 28 of the Native Vegetation Regulation 2005).

Click here to read Clause 28 of the Native Vegetation Regulation 2005.