Biodiversity Conservation Act
- by Biologic
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in Blog
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As of the 1st of January 2019, the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act) came into full effect and now replaces the outdated Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 and the Sandalwood Act 1929. Several parts of the Act were proclaimed in 2016; however, the key components of the Act that relate to the majority of the work completed by Biologic (flora and fauna licensing, threatened and priority flora, fauna and ecological communities) required accompanying regulations. These regulations were published in the Government Gazette on the 11th of September 2018 (https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/law_s50938.html).
Some of the key components of the BC Act that relate to the work completed by Biologic include:
• Flora, fauna and ecological communities listing changes: both species and ecological communities may now be listed. The Minister may now also list habitats as "critical habitats";
• Environmental fines: the fines for taking threatened flora or taking, possessing or disturbing threatened fauna have significantly increased. Penalties have increased to $500,000 for individuals or $2.5 million for body corporates;
• Obligation to report: there is an obligation to report an occurrence of threatened species or threatened ecological communities if found in the course of field work; and
• Licensing: the Regulations create a range of new licences to authorise the taking, disturbing, possessing, dealing, importing and exporting of flora and fauna.
Some additional information on the BC Act can be found here:
https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/plants-and-animals/468-biodiversity-conservation-act-2016
https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/
