A NSW Government website

Obtaining a licence

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water regulates wildlife rehabilitation to ensure services are available, reliable and applied in accordance with best practice.

 

Unless you are a registered veterinarian, you require a Biodiversity Conservation Licence granted under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016(link is external) (BC Act) to possess a sick, injured or orphaned protected animal for rehabilitation purposes.

In New South Wales, services are delivered mainly by wildlife rehabilitation groups, with volunteer members providing care from their homes or centre-based facilities. These groups and facilities provide the training, mentoring and supervision needed to support volunteers in applying our standards.

Animal display establishments such as Taronga Zoo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo also provide crucial support through their wildlife hospital, pathology and animal rehabilitation facilities.

Some licensed wildlife rehabilitation providers specialise in certain species, such as koalas, flying foxes or marine wildlife, whereas others cover a wide range of species.

All participants in wildlife rehabilitation must meet the quality assurance standards listed in our Rehabilitation of protected animals policy. This will guarantee a consistent level of excellence in volunteer management and animal welfare outcomes across New South Wales.

Anyone who is considering applying for a licence should first read the Rehabilitation of protected animals policy, which outlines:

  • who can conduct wildlife rehabilitation in New South Wales
  • the type of activities you can undertake
  • what is needed to meet our requirements.

Our objective is to have a small number of well-managed, well-trained and collaborative network of wildlife rehabilitation providers that provide high standards of care to the protected animals they are permitted to rehabilitate.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance is a method for the department to assess whether both prospective and existing wildlife rehabilitation providers can comply with our specified standards of operation. Our purpose is to give greater certainty to the community that wildlife rehabilitation services are being delivered in a consistent, reliable and credible manner that is in accordance with established standards.

All wildlife rehabilitation providers must meet the following 6 quality assurance standards. Further detail is available in our application form available from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Wildlife Licensing Team.

  • Standard 1: The structures, activities and operations of a wildlife rehabilitation provider are in accordance with the principles of legal compliance, probity, transparency and accountability.
  • Standard 2: Wildlife rehabilitation providers have a structured program of training and support in place that ensures wildlife rehabilitators are competent to effectively perform their role.
  • Standard 3: Wildlife rehabilitation providers have a system of quality assurance for the management of animals in their care.
  • Standard 4: Wildlife rehabilitation providers demonstrate an efficient phone rescue service and capacity to effectively respond to calls for assistance.
  • Standard 5: Wildlife rehabilitation providers have quality systems in place to ensure data integrity in reporting and can demonstrate compliance with the department's reporting requirements.
  • Standard 6: Wildlife rehabilitation providers have systems in place for ensuring they engage with veterinary practitioners in a consistent, structured and ethical manner.

Comply with licence conditions

Wildlife rehabilitation licences are granted under the BC Act with conditions. Conditions may differ between licences as considered appropriate by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (the department).

Under section 2.14 of the BC Act, it is an offence to contravene or fail to comply with a condition of your licence. The department may conduct random audits of licensees to ensure licence conditions are being met. 

The following licence conditions are current at the time of publication and are subject to change at any time.

Governance resources for the wildlife rehabilitation sector

Managing conflict in the wildlife rehabilitation sector

Conflict is a normal part of life and of working with others and will likely affect everyone at some time. For example, conflict may arise because of a difference in interpretation of guidelines, standards, rules or facts or a disagreement about personal performance or views. Sometimes, it may also involve inappropriate behaviours like bullying, harassment or discrimination.

Dealing with conflict can be uncomfortable and stressful. If allowed to escalate, it can be very destructive to people and organisations involved. For a wildlife rehabilitation group, conflict can affect its reputation in the community and result in volunteer burnout, loss of members and negatively impact the operation of the organisation itself.

The department has no authority under the BC Act to resolve conflicts in wildlife rehabilitation groups. Neither does it arbitrate such matters. Instead, we have focused on developing resources and tools to enable groups to deal with conflict if it arises. We want to ensure everyone in the wildlife rehabilitation sector can access the right tools to manage conflict within their organisations. So, in collaboration with Justice Connect, we have developed a Conflict management toolkit and a Conflict of interest policy for the wildlife rehabilitation sector in New South Wales.

The conflict management toolkit includes a package of resources to help wildlife rehabilitation organisations avoid and manage internal conflict, including:

  • strategies for preventing, identifying and managing conflict
  • governance considerations for committees dealing with conflict
  • bullying sexual harassment and discrimination policy
  • codes of conduct for committees and volunteers and a
  • complaint form.

The conflict management toolkit should become an essential part of each wildlife rehabilitation organisation's governance policy and procedures.

If groups cannot resolve conflict using these tools, they may need to seek the assistance of independent mediation – for example, from a Community Justice Centre(link is external) – or contact NSW Fair Trading(link is external) or the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission(link is external) if appropriate. Unresolved matters may require independent legal advice.

Developing these resources is an action in our Volunteer wildlife rehabilitation sector strategy and a recommendation of the Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel.

Training in leadership, train the trainer and conflict resolution skills

To help support licensed volunteer wildlife rehabilitation organisations, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has worked closely with WIRES to create free online training courses in leadership, training and conflict resolution.

The courses have been created to assist organisations and individual volunteers wanting more support. They will assist new committee members and other volunteers who take on leadership and training roles in their respective organisations. See Governance courses New South Wales(link is external).

Health and safety

The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife's Wildlife Heroes program has created a booklet and pocket guide to highlight some key health and safety hazards of wildlife rehabilitation and common ways to minimise them. The Let's Make it Zero for our Wildlife Heroes(link is external) booklet is designed to fit on a folded A4 landscape style, and the pocket guide is a small A6 size for your pocket.

Recruiting new volunteers

Finding new volunteers across all ages and demographics can be challenging for wildlife rehabilitation organisations. The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife Wildlife Heroes program has created a poster describing all the activities potential new volunteers can do with their local group. The Do You Want to Help Wildlife?(link is external) poster can be downloaded and used at community events. 

Contact us

Wildlife Team

Phone: 02 9585 6406

Email: wildlife.licensing@environment.nsw.gov.au