Legislation
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
- Water Act 2007
- More environment legislation
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is the Australian Government's central piece of environmental legislation. It provides a legal framework to protect and manage nationally and internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places defined in the Act as matters of national environmental significance.
Specifically, the EPBC Act aims to:
- conserve Australia? biodiversity
- protect biodiversity internationally by controlling the international movement of wildlife
- provide a streamlined environmental assessment and
- approvals process where matters of national environmental significance are involved
- protect our world and national heritage
- promote ecologically sustainable development.
The EPBC Act contains an extensive regime for the conservation of biodiversity including provisions dealing with:
- listing of nationally threatened species and ecological communities, migratory species and marine species
- preparing conservation advice and/or national recovery plans and wildlife conservation plans for listed species and additional protection for listed species in Commonwealth areas
- identifying key threatening processes and the preparing threat abatement plans for such processes (if required)
- invasive species
- access to biological resources in Commonwealth areas
- import and export of plants and animals (wildlife) and products derived from wildlife
- protection and management of World Heritage properties, National and Commonwealth Heritage places, Ramsar wetlands and Commonwealth reserves
- establishment of the Australian Whale Sanctuary in Australia's exclusive economic zone
Public notices
Open for public comment under the EPBC Act:
- Comment on nominations
- Permits
- Recovery plans
- Referrals and assessments
- Threat abatement plans
- Wildlife trade applications
EPBC Act lists
- About the EPBC Act
- Critical habitat
- Key threatening processes
- Migratory species
- Recovery plans
- Species and communities under the EPBC Act
- Threat abatement plans
- Threatened ecological communities
- Threatened fauna
- Threatened flora
- Listings since commencement of the EPBC Act