Government Department must take strong action to Stop Land Clearing in NSW Coastal Zone

Monday, 02 August 2004 10:00

 Unless the Government takes consistent and strong action against illegal and questionable land clearing in the NSW coastal zone, it will continue to surge despite recent legislative changes that should be preventing it, a peak NSW Environment organisation said today.
 
The NSW based Total Environment Centre said despite recent changes to the state's Native Vegetation Act that have ruled out clearing exemptions in the coastal zone, land clearers are continuing to remove native forest, heath and other bushland at a frightening and unsustainable pace.

"Reports of lack of action in stopping questionable and illegal land clearing in areas such as Richmond, Coffs Harbour, Nambucca, Kempsey, Taree, Wollongong Shires for example have shown that legislative changes to prevent clearing in the coastal zone will make little difference unless court action is taken to back those changes," said Ms Kelly.

"The wider community is losing confidence in the Department of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources (DIPNR) - the Government department that should be stemming the deliberate destruction of native vegetation. They can ill afford this with the new vegetation laws coming in," said TEC coastal campaigner Fran Kelly

"Now is the time for DIPNR to get out there and take strong and consistent action against the clearers who are more often than not developers and land owners lobbying for rezoning or development on their land and pre-emptively destroying its environmental values," said Ms Kelly. 
 

For further information

Contact
:
Fran Kelly - Coastal Campaigner
Phone
:
61 2 9299 5599
Email
:
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:
http://www.tec.org.au/