Biodiversity Planning Services

Land & Fire Assessments (LFA) has extensive experience in the ecological assessment & management industry. Such expertise gained working on many ecosystem restoration projects and flora and fauna surveys, allows LFA staff to provide a broad range of ecosystem assessment and management services including the following

• Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) application

• Biodiversity Planning Review

• Ecological monitoring and reporting

• Revegetation plans and monitoring

• Assessment of findings according to relevant planning controls and environmental legislation

  
  

Biodiversity Assessment Method

The Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act) prescribes a new ecological assessment methodology, namely the Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM), which is established under section 6.7 of the BC Act.  The BAM is established for the purpose of assessing certain impacts on threatened species and threatened ecological communities (TECs), and their habitats, and the impact on biodiversity values, where required under the BC Act, Local Land Services Act 2013 (LLS Act) or the State Environmental Planning Policy (Vegetation in Non-Rural Areas) 2017). 

For development that requires consent under Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act), the BAM will need to be used to assess the impact of the development on biodiversity values where the development is above the Biodiversity Offset Scheme (BOS) entry threshold .  

The BOS is triggered if the proposal includes clearing that exceed the Area Criteria or whether the impacts occur on an area mapped on the Biodiversity Values map published by the Minister for the Environment.  The BAM will also apply to any developments that will have a significant effect on biodiversity based on the assessment of significance (formerly known as the seven part test) under s.1.7 of EP&A Act.

If the BOS is triggered, then the Biodiversity Development Assessment Report (BDAR) is to be prepared and lodged with the Development Application (DA). Only Accredited Biodiversity Assessors can undertake a BDAR .

Avoid, Minimise, Mitigate principles are to be applied to all proposals. When assessing the impacts of a potential development all components of the proposal need to be considered in the assessment, including Asset Protection Zones (APZs), effluent disposal fields, access road, buildings, services infrastructure and the like. Therefore, there need to be synergy and coordination between the consultants undertaking the various Assessments. LFA can provide such integration, particularly where close cooperation between the appointed biodiversity accredited assessor and the bushfire accredited practitioner are required to avoid and minimise potential adverse impacts on the environment.

In summary, the BAM (Biodiversity Assessment) is to be used in order to quantifying biodiversity values on land that is:

• proposed as a development site (consent under Part 4), including for a Part 5 activity (BDAR)

• subject to a vegetation clearing proposal which is required to be assessed by BAM under the NSW Local Land Services Act 2013 (BDAR)

• proposed to be biocertified (BCAR)

• proposed as a stewardship site under a biodiversity stewardship agreement (BSSAR)