The state's environment minister Penny Sharpe has pledged to "fix" the state's biodiversity offset scheme in the face of widespread concern that it is failing to protect endangered species and ecosystems and is riddled with integrity and transparency concerns.
It follows scathing criticism from the head of the NSW Nature Conservation Council, Jacqui Mumford, who said the use of offset credits in the approval of a $264 million gas pipeline between Killingworth and Kurri demonstrated why the current system was completely broken.
Under the present scheme, proponents are required to buy credits to compensate for the destruction of habitat that occurs as part of the construction of infrastructure.
In the Hunter, mining companies have been singled out for exploiting the scheme to achieve massive land clearing as part of mining extension projects.
A 2022 NSW Auditor General's review found the market-based approach was not working and was doing little to maintain a healthy, productive and resilient environment.
It was also plagued with problems of integrity, transparency and conflict of interest. In addition, there was no plan for long-term funding for the care of biodiversity stewardship sites.
The Newcastle Herald recently reported that APA deposited more than $12 million with the Biodiversity Conservation Fund in order to compensate for the loss of high value biodiversity associated with the construction of a gas lateral from the Newcastle to Sydney gas pipeline at Killingworth to the Hunter Power Project at Kurri.
The project's 21 kilometre route includes numerous flora and fauna species, some of which are endangered. They include several varieties of spotted gum, smooth-barked-apple and swamp oak trees.
Animals include the Gang-gang Cockatoo, the Little Eagle and the square-tailed Kite.
Ms Mumford described the use of biodiversity offsets for the project as a case study of why the state's environmental protection laws were failing.
"Instead of protecting endangered habitat, our laws have greenlit their destruction," she said.
"The NSW offsetting system is a failed market mechanism that enables development approval to be granted in almost every situation. Biodiversity has become a cost of doing business, not a decisive factor in whether a proposal should be permitted or refused.
"Biodiversity offsetting as a concept compromises nature. A working land management and planning system is one that puts a stop to unsustainable projects and developments."
The council has called for biodiversity laws to be strengthened to, and therefore access to offsets in:
- all protected areas including Areas of Outstanding Biodiversity Value (AOBVs)
- lands subject to stewardship agreements and existing offset areas
- Land where any threatened species or ecological community is found
- situations that disrupt the integrity of, or connectivity between, protected areas and areas subject to conservation agreements
- situations that would result in the local, regional or outright extinction or a species
"What makes this project (the Killingworth to Kurri gas pipeline) so terrible is that it will destroy endangered habitat in order to lock in gas for another 30 years, fuelling climate change that further threatens these plus many more endangered species.
"It is an outright lie that these credits are being used to protect similar 'like for like' habitat. Paying money into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund means that they were unable to find 'comparable habitat' in the Hunter that these endangered animals could live in.
"The very fact that APA has paid money into the Biodiversity Conservation Fund instead of investing directly in conservation measures tells us that this precious habitat doesn't exist anywhere else in the Hunter.
"No matter what, the Gang Gangs of Newcastle, Maitland and surrounding areas lose out.
"Habitat destruction is a main driver of our extinction crisis. Planting saplings won't make a difference for the plants and animals bulldozed for this fossil fuel pipeline.
In response, Minister Sharpe said the government had committed to overhauling the scheme.
"One of our election commitments is to fix the biodiversity offset scheme," she said.
It needs to be less complicated and deliver real gains for NSW's biodiversity and habitat.
"The Henry review into the Biodiversity Conservation Act gives us a great platform to consider this reform. We will give a whole of government response to the Review in 2024, and this will include references to Offsets."
Ms Mumford welcomed the commitment.
"We were delighted to hear Environment Minister Penny Sharpe again confirm a plan to fix our offset scheme. However, we must not allow critical habitats like this to be destroyed in the meantime," she said.
"It's like lighting another fire while waiting for the fire department to arrive and put out a different fire."
