The Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (the
Biodiversity Act), Local Land Services Amendment Act 2016
(The LLSA Act) and the Biodiversity Conservation Regulations
2017 (the Regulations) commenced on 25 August 2017
(biodiversity reforms).
These biodiversity reforms provide a framework for addressing
impacts on biodiversity and clearing through development, and
establish a method of avoiding, minimising and offsetting
impacts.
The biodiversity reforms are complex and represent significant
changes to the way that biodiversity impacts are considered in
assessing and approving a proposed development in NSW.
The introduction of the Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM)
largely replaces existing threatened species assessments and
biodiversity offsetting methods, and involves measuring loss or
gain in native vegetation and habitat loss as 'biodiversity
credits'.
