Conservation options for private landholders
DECC promotes the protection and conservation of high conservation value lands through a range of mechanisms designed to address key biodiversity strategies and issues and to meet the different needs of landholders in encouraging broad involvement in private land conservation.
DECC also works in partnership with other organisations to support non-statutory community programs which promote conservation on private lands.
Find out more about the following DECC conservation options
Biodiversity Banking and Offsets Scheme (or 'BioBanking') has been established under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 to help address the loss of biodiversity and promote the recovery of threatened species in coastal regions of the state, resulting from habitat degradation and loss - initially from over-grazing and clearing for agriculture and more recently from the clearing of native vegetation for urban development.
Property Vegetation Plans have been introduced under the Native Vegetation Act 2003 in response to the need to regulate native vegetation clearing in regions of the state through negotiated offset and incentives arrangements. Following changes on 1 August 2007, harvesting of timber for the purposes of private native forestry requires approval through a private native forestry property vegetation plan, which is voluntary to enter into but once in place is a legally binding agreement between DECC and a landowner about the management of private forests.
The Conservation Partners Program provides the opportunity for significant natural and cultural heritage values on private and non-reserved public lands to be protected and conserved through Conservation Agreements and Wildlife Refuges under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. These long term legal commitments are entered into voluntarily and complement the public national park and reserve system. These lands play a critical role in connecting conservation areas to facilitate species survival and movement, and strengthen the resilience of protected areas by acting as a buffer to threats, including the potential implications of climate change.
Another option to consider is selling land for national parks. To better conserve the state's landscape, land is acquired inclusion in the national parks and reserve system, which seeks to represent all bioregions adequately. Sometimes land is transferred from other government agencies for dedication as a conservation reserve. At other times, it is voluntarily purchased from private landholders.
You can also donate land for national parks through the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife. It may be the ideal solution if the land is of conservation value and not used for other purposes, ways to reduce tax burdens is needed, or an owner doesn’t want to bequeath the land to their heirs or would like to be released from the responsibility of managing it.
Alps to Atherton is a continental scale conservation initiative along Australia’s great eastern ranges, from the Australian Alps north of Melbourne, Victoria to the Atherton Tablelands to just west of Cairns in far north Queensland. Governments, private and public landholders and the general community are working together to help people, native plants and animals adapt to future environmental threats by reconnecting ‘islands’ of fragmented natural ecosystems, spiritual places and Country that are important to Aboriginal Australians, and significant post-1788 cultural heritage.