BUSHFIRES, BUREAUCRACY AND BARRIERS - How poorly implemented critical habitat frameworks risk failing the

▪ Separately, habitat ‘critical to the survival’ of species must be identified in a recovery plan.23 The term ‘critical to the survival’ is undefined in the EPBC Act, however the same criteria set out in clause 7.09 of the EPBC Regulation should be considered in identifying habitat that is critical to the survival of the species or community concerned.24 ▪ Additionally, the Matters of National Env. [...] The Federal Court has found the definition of ‘habitat critical to the survival of a species or ecological community’ in the Significant Impact Guidelines to be of relevance for understanding the term ‘critical habitat’.26 - Under the Victorian FFG Act, the definition of critical habitat is “an area of Victoria in respect of which a critical habitat determination is made”. [...] The case was made for the urgent use and reform of critical habitat listing in Australian legislation.46 EDO and WWF-Australia’s work has continued to explore opportunities to use existing critical habitat provisions to protect priority unburnt areas that are critical to the survival of species in the wake of the bushfires. [...] Section 6 of the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 (Vic) establishes the body corporate as “The person who is for the time being the Department Head (within the meaning of the Public Administration Act 2004) of the Department and the successors in office of that person are a body corporate under the name “Secretary to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning”. [...] means a habitat that is critical to the survival and recovery of a species or ecological Note the inclusion of ‘recovery’, reflecting community, and can include: the definition in the Matters of National Environmental Significance – Significant impact guidelines 1.1; criterion (f) of clause 7.09 of the EPBC Regulation; and the need to halt and reverse ongoing biodiversity decline.