Victoria's Native Vegetation Management: A Framework for Action

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Introduction | The Main Goal: Net Gain | Guiding Principles | The Three Step Approach | Quality vs Quantity

Introduction

Native Vegetation Management: A Framework for action (the Framework) was released in 2002. It was developed to implement the objectives of Victoria’s Biodiversity Strategy and the Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010-2030.

‘The framework’ is the State Government’s strategy to protect, enhance and revegetate Victoria’s native vegetation. It:

focuses on catchments as a whole;
addresses critical issues on private land where native vegetation has been cleared or fragmented;
provides a strong focus on protection and improvement of higher conservation significance vegetation; and
provides a flexible but accountable approach for lower conservation significance vegetation, enabling landholders to move towards more sustainable land use options.

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The Main Goal: Net Gain

The Framework’s main goal is to achieve a reversal, across the entire landscape of the long-term decline in the extent and quality of native vegetation, leading to a net gain.

Net gain is where overall gains in native vegetation are greater than overall losses and where individual losses are avoided where possible. This recognises that although it’s better to retain existing native vegetation, it is possible to partially recover both amount and quality by active work and therefore improve the result as a whole. Net gain will be achieved as a result of landholder and government-assisted efforts to protect and improve native vegetation. In addition, permitted clearing must be offset in a way that adequately addresses the future impacts of such clearing.

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Guiding Principles

The framework has four guiding principles:
1. Retention and management of remnant native vegetation is the best way to conserve biodiversity
2. Conservation of native vegetation and habitat depends on the maintenance of catchment processes.
3. Costs should be equitably shared according to benefits that the landholder, community and region get
4. A landscape approach to planning native vegetation management is required and priorities should be based on bioregions within Catchment Management Authority regions.

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The Three Step Approach - Avoid, minimise and offset

In applying the policy, there are three key steps for land managers and owners to address when considering vegetation clearing:
1. Avoid adverse impacts, particularly through vegetation clearance;
2. If impacts cannot be avoided, minimise impacts by careful planning, design and management; and
3. If clearing must occur, the clearing must be offset*

A planning permit is required to remove native vegetation and the three-step approach is an integral part of the decision making process relating to such permits.

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Quality vs Quantity

Most concern for native vegetation is focused on clearing, but maintaining good quality native vegetation is just as important for conserving plants and animals and for maintaining our land in good condition.
DSE has developed a standard approach for estimating the quality of an area of vegetation. Known as habitat hectares, it measures a site’s condition and landscape context.

Site condition measures how much the site has changed from a 'benchmark' that describes the average characteristics of the vegetation if it were mature and undisturbed for some time, by looking at:

presence of large old trees (for woodlands and forests)
amount of tree canopy cover (for woodlands and forests)
the amount of logs (for woodland forests)
the cover and diversity of the understorey
presence of appropriate regeneration
how weedy the site is
how much leaf litter there is

Landscape context considers how well the patch of vegetation can cope with natural fluctuations and disturbances events, such as old trees dying, bushfires and floods. It is measured by:
how big the area of vegetation is that the site is within; and
links to, and amount of, neighbouring patches of vegetation

The maps, information and publications section of this site, specifically the Vegetation Quality Assessment Manual, describes how benchmarks are used during vegetation quality assessments.

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Copies of the Framework

Hard copies are currently unavailable, a reprint will be done mid 2011.
If you would like more information please contact the DSE Customer Service Centre on 136 186.

Please note: Document(s) on this page are presented in PDF format. If you do not have the Adobe Reader, you can download a copy free from the Adobe web site.

Cover image of Victorias native vegetation: A framework for action

Landscape context considers how well the patch of vegetation can cope with natural fluctuations and disturbances.