Native vegetation provides habitat for plants and animals and delivers a range of ecosystem services that make land more productive and contribute to human well-being.
In Victoria, a permit is usually required to remove, destroy or lop native vegetation.
These regulations are known as the native vegetation removal regulations and are primarily implemented through local council planning schemes.
DELWP has recently reviewed the legislation in conjunction with the community and stakeholder groups. This review has led to amendments in the legislation that will better protect Victoria’s sensitive native vegetation while ensuring the regulations are easier to use.
The most significant changes are:
better accounting for the environmental value of large scattered trees, endangered vegetation types, sensitive wetlands and coastal areas in decision making
making the system fairer, by allowing some site based information to supplement mapped information, and ensuring the information used in the regulations better reflects the vegetation on the ground.
improving monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the regulations.
For more information on the changes Click Here