Caldera from Mt Warning
*CONSERVATION ECOLOGISTS ASSOCIATION**
**Science — Conservation — Community**
**MEDIA RELEASE 28 October 2012*
The Conservation Ecologists Association (CEA) is requesting that finalisation of far north coast Local Environment Plans be deferred until the State Government completes its review of environmental zones.
The request to the Mayors of Tweed, Byron, Ballina, Lismore, and Kyogle Councils is in response to the NSW Minister for Planning’s decision of 20 September (requested by Don Page and Thomas George) to over-ride the Council’s Local Environment Plan (LEP) processes by excising environmental zones and overlays in “rural” areas.
CEA spokesperson, Dr Robert Kooyman, said that the State Government’s decision to excise environmental zones and overlays from far north coast Local Environment Plans has effectively removed the environment from local planning.
“Why has the State Government chosen to remove environmental zones in LEPs only in the far north coast region? Do we really have to remind the State Government that this region is a recognised biodiversity hotspot of national and international significance? Have they forgotten that its rainforests are of World Heritage value? Do they need reminding that historic over-clearing, logging and infrastructure development have resulted in this region having the greatest number of plant and animal species threatened with extinction in NSW?
By intervening to excise environmental protection from this region’s Local
Environment Plans, the NSW Government has removed the responsibility and
right of north coast communities to identify what they consider appropriate
protection for rainforests, old-growth forests, endangered ecosystems, core
Koala habitat, wildlife corridors, scenic escarpments, water catchments and
riparian buffers, and other high conservation value lands.
As yet there is no indication of what, if any, environmental controls on land use the State Government is going to allow to be restored to LEPs and in what manner.
We are calling on far north coast Councils to suspend their Local Environment Plans until the State Government has completed its review of environmental zones and overlays. The environment must be considered up front and transparently in the planning process, not as a political deal
done afterwards behind closed doors. Only by an adequate assessment of environmental values at the beginning of the planning process can ecologically sustainable development be achieved.
The State Government should complete its review urgently, issue clear guidelines, and refund Councils for any work required to accommodate this last minute political intervention.
Most importantly we must not lose sight of the need to provide adequate protection for this region’s unique biological legacy” Dr Kooyman said.
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